Yellow Haze
by Chaotic Heartless
Summary: [AU.Clouffie in later chapters.] Yuffie just wanted to be free. She didn't ever expect that the one thing related to saving herself from failing, would get herself a different type of freedom then she could have ever imagined.
1. Chapter I

**Yellow Haze- Chapter I:**_Myths, Monsters, & Legends._

* * *

The light of the midday sun drifted in through the window, casting a dull light over the class room, due to the gray blinds that were halfway down. A soft, but consistent chatter filled the room- as students talked about the project they were currently working on. The teacher, however, was sitting in front of his computer- thin, bone like fingers typed away- making a constant, yet monotonous sound. As long ago, the class' daily discussion had ended, leaving the students to the work and the teacher free to do whatever he wished.

However, someone wasn't working.

The student in the front of the room sighed loudly, flicking a black piece of hair out of her gaze. It wasn't her fault, really- it was just that sociology was an extremely boring class for her- and she just didn't know anything about it. When she took it, she'd assumed that she would have been able to ace it- _"I'm a Ninja, I should be able to do this! Knowing people is all part of the job!"_ however, Yuffie had soon realized that she sucked at this course.

A lot.

Which was really bad- she needed this credit to pass high school. Of course, Yuffie wasn't really interested in schooling- no, not at all. But her Godfather had told her just recently, that if she didn't pass High school, Godo- her actual father- would not accept her back into the dojo. Usually, she didn't dare fall for any blackmail trick, but Yuffie couldn't risk it. The only thing she wanted to do was to live a life free of any constraints and the only way she knew how to do that was to finish her Ninja training.

The bell rang, and Yuffie jumped out of her seat as the rest of the class starting packing up. However, before she could make her very hasty retreat, a voice cleared itself, causing her to pause. "Miss Kisaragi. I would like to speak with you."

Yuffie became solid like a piece of oak, stiffly turning around and nodding to her teacher. "Yes, sir?" she echoed, trying to appear as she was entirely innocent. She knew she wasn't doing that well in this class, so she made extra sure not to piss off the teacher- However, Yuffie knew all too well that even when she wasn't trying, she happened to piss off a large amount of people.

"Now, Yuffie, if you didn't know, you're not doing well in this class." the teacher swept across the little space between his chair and his table, sitting upon it and folding his arms- yet, despite his closed off body language, he still gave off a friendly aura. "You're in danger of failing this course."

Yuffie's eyebrows shot up- she knew she had been doing horribly, but _failing_?- as she opened her mouth to speak, she was cut off with a teacher's swift movement of his hand. Yuffie instantly shut up, and the teacher chuckled deeply.

"I know what you're going to say, and yes, there is a way to get enough credit to pass this class."

Yuffie decided _not_ to tell the teacher that she wasn't going to say that, because she was getting a scapegoat. "How?" she spoke quietly, doing her best to keep her calm, cool, facade. This teacher didn't seem to know what she was actually like- and that was something in her favor, because if he did, he wouldn't be giving her this chance...

At least, she didn't think.

"Very simple, Yuffie. There's an advanced project that this class isn't going to be able to do this year- it's usually assigned as my final project. Here, this is the instruction paper." the teacher lifted a hand and reached onto his desk, handing Yuffie a stapled piece of paper, which she raised an eyebrow at once she read the title.

_'Myths, monsters, and urban legends- Why, where, and how.'_

"But, I'll be kind, and give you the basic idea. You're to research either a myth, an animal that's rumored to exist, like Bigfoot, or an Urban Legend. You're going to have to tell why, how, and where- in any form you wish. But, you must explain why people believe these things, and how they spread so quickly. You're allowed to present it in any form- be original." the teacher smiled at Yuffie, which confused her greatly- usually this teacher had a strict set of rules, guidelines, and other things- and if you didn't follow them to the dot, you wouldn't get the full mark.

"What's with all the freedom?" Yuffie couldn't stop the question before it left her mouth, and when she expected a glare, she had got a smirk- which confused her more.

"You can only truly know if a student has learned anything, if they know how to show you, without you telling them how."

* * *

Yuffie grumbled to herself as she sat in front of the school computer. Currently, she was working after school- much to her own disgust- to try and research her project. However, it seemed that the Gods were against her- all of the other school library computers were glitched to hell, and she was on the only one working. Despite the fact that it _worked_, it was extremely laggy and slow. Yuffie really wished that she had asked for a computer for Christmas, instead of a set of Kunai.

"Move."

For the last couple of minutes, Yuffie had been staring at the computer, not really knowing what to do. So, when someone managed to sneak up on her, she instantly snapped her head to the direction of the speaker- lucky that she didn't get a neck cramp.

Yuffie glared at the man standing before her- His name was Squall-but he demanded to go by Leon-, a brown haired peer that had icy blue eyes as cold as his heart. He seemed nice, but always happened to be a real ass to her- in her opinion, at least. "I'm using this computer, Squall." she raised an eyebrow at him, assuming that this fight, like all the others, wouldn't go anywhere.

"It's _Leon_, and you're just sitting here doing nothing." his glare intensified, as he folded his arms over his chest and stared her down.

"Well, listen here Scarface, I need to come up with some subject to research, if you could so kindly help me, I'd kindly let you onto this computer." Yuffie allowed a smirk to come to her face, as Squall visible flinched at her new nickname for him.

"What's it on?" Squall inquired, and Yuffie felt a flow of pride knowing that he'd accepted _her_ terms.

"Myths, urban legends, ect..." Yuffie waved her hand dismissively, acting as if this project didn't hold the weight of her passing.

Squall's eyebrows narrowed deeply, and he suddenly looked very annoyed. "You _do_ realize there's a section on that kinda stuff in the town newspaper?" he countered, his voice dripping with venom.

"Nope! Where do I get one?" she questioned, tilting her head to the side and jumping up, landing on her chair and staring at Squall's practically lifeless eyes- lifeless when they weren't expressing rage or annoyance- now that they were eye level.

Squall made a noise that sounded like a mixture of a growl, a groan, and sigh. Looking around the room, he spotted a copy on the nearby table- knowing it must have been left by a teacher, or someone akin to that- and snatched it angrily off the table, before handing it to her. "Move." he repeated in response.

"Thanks, Scarface!" she ripped it from his grasp, jumping down the chair and rushing past him.

"Whatever." Squall shook his head, as a figure stepped out from a nearby rack of shelves, holding a couple of books. Squall looked at them with a smug look, before speaking.

"You've got weird tastes."

* * *

"Comics... Comics... Personal ads... Ahoy!" Yuffie was currently sitting Indian style on her bed, staring down at the newspaper as she tried to find the section that Squall had mentioned before. Yuffie scanned the section, reading each part before her eyebrows shot up, a big grin coming to her face as she licked her lips. Jumping up so she was standing on her bed, she looked very pleased with herself.

"That's perfect."

* * *

End chapter one.

S.O.H


	2. Chapter II

**Yellow Haze- _Chapter II:_**_ Late Night Homework._

It was night time.

Actually, to be precise, it was twelve.

It was also a Friday night, on a full moon, in mid December.

Currently, Yuffie was in a tree.

... At 12'o clock...

On a Friday...

On a full moon.

In mid December.

With a video camera.

In a tree, in the middle of the nearby park.

Now, what would one Yuffie Kisaragi being doing in a tree, at twelve, on a Friday night, with a video camera?

It's quite simple, really.

* * *

Yuffie had stumbled upon an interesting story- about the WereChocobo. She had known it was perfect, but when she found out that it was _local_ she knew that she didn't have a choice but to do it. The story had gone to talk about how on every full moon, there were sightings of a Chocobo in the Ansem Park. Now, this wasn't just any Chocobo- this Chocobo was apparently very huge, and most people said that it had some sort of... Horns on it's head, whilst others said it was wearing human like clothes. Chocobos in themselves were impossible to find in the wild now, and no one in the area owned one.

So, _of course_, the only logically explanation was that it was a_ **WereChocobo**_- as in, someone that **_turned_** into a Chocobo. Because that just made perfect sense and didn't defy logic, or science...

At all.

* * *

Yuffie really wished that she had something better to do- but sadly, she didn't. Truth of the matter was, Yuffie wasn't exactly popular. In fact, she didn't really have any friends in her classes, or the entire school for that matter. She just... Didn't connect with anyone. Yuffie's dream was to be free, and to live in the countryside- but also, to stop the countryside from becoming a over-developed hell hole like where she lived now. If she had her own way, she'd be with Godo, but she didn't- she had to get her education first, and stay with her Godfather, Cid.

Yuffie had a dream, she had ideals- _she wanted to be free._

Everyone else, however- they didn't care. They didn't see anything wrong with the hell that they lived in- they wanted to be _apart_ of it. Yuffie had been disgusted at the strange people here in the city, and had voiced her opinions quite loudly- causing her to get a lot of unwanted attention. That had been a couple years ago, and her first week at school had been utter hell- she could defend herself, yes, physical wounds were nothing to her. But it had been what they _said_ that bothered her the most.

It had been strange though- suddenly, everyone had stopped picking on her. She didn't know what had happened, but everyone seemed to.. Fear her? She hadn't complained nor had she questioned it, instead decided that she would just go with it.

Yawning, she looked out to the park, video camera in hand. Her short attention span was not helping here, and she was dreadfully bored. She had to say that she'd camped out to prove that the Chocobo rumors weren't true- and if they were, it was probably an illegally owned 'Bo. Shaking her head, she groaned, deciding that she'd just leave now.

Reaching for the branch above her to drop down, she stopped when she heard a strange sound. Her gray eyes instantly shot out- her gaze going into _soft vision_, a very basic hunter's trick that caused the one doing it to notice the smallest of movements. She looked for any movement- yet, she didn't see any. Yuffie normally would have relied on her other senses- her main one being hearing, but the smell, taste, and loud noise of the city tended to make those senses useless to her. She would only taste, hear, and smell the city- and wouldn't be able to pick up on her prey or her foe, if they were moving quietly, and didn't smell like skunk.

She didn't see anything, so once again, she went to move down- only to hear it again. It was so loud that it managed to cut through the city's own noise. Yuffie couldn't label the noise, but it kinda sounded like a...

"Kweh!" Yuffie's gaze shot up, as she saw a bright yellow figure make it's way towards her in the distance. She quickly moved onto the thick branch she had been perched on before, and took out her camera. Slowly, Yuffie could only watch in amazement as a Chocobo did, indeed, step into the large clearing nearby the tree she was sitting in. It was, indeed, very large for a Chocobo- and Yuffie almost coughed up a lung in laughter as she saw what was on it's head.

A Santa hat.

Yuffie watched and recorded as the Chocobo almost... Pranced, or at least, as much as a Chocobo _can_ prance around the middle center. It's eyes were wide and rather adorable, a shining and impossible shade of livid blue. Yuffie was so caught up in her recording and watching- having never seen a Chocobo expect at the ranches nearby her house in the country- that she didn't notice the branch stressing under her weight.

_Snap._

Yuffie had forgotten the golden rule about trees- never climb them during the colder months, as they become weak and break quite easily. Yuffie, to her credit, did not shout out in fear- merely dropped that camera and threw out her hands, gripping onto the branch above her as she managed to catch the camera in her feet. She cursed, expecting that the Chocobo would have run away in fear, but when she looked to her right...

Yuffie almost let go of the branch in surprise when she saw the Chocobo standing right next to her, looking at her with a strange expression with it's head tilted to the side, it's Santa hat covering one eye as the puff on the end jingled a bit. Sweet gods, it was huge! She was pretty high up in the tree, and it's head was up by her chest. She blinked, very confused at the birds' strange behavior- she had read that Chocobos were very easy to scare, and wouldn't just come up to you and greet you as if you were it's best friend. Even the ones at the local ranches were wary of people, especially strangers, and including their handlers.

"Uh... Hey?" Yuffie smiled sheepishly, and the Chocobo's head shot up straight. Now, Yuffie wasn't an expert in any means on Chocobo expressions, but it looked very pleased... At least, she thought it did.

"Wark!" it fluffed it's feathers, before flapping it's wings a little bit.

Yuffie, however, was still a little speechless. "Umm... Yeah. Well, it was nice-" before Yuffie could finish, however, the bird suddenly froze- it's eyebrows narrowing, as the air got.. Cold, and stale.

Yuffie looked up, and around- noticing that the entire area had become... Darker. The surrounding trees were menacing, and for the Gods of her, Yuffie couldn't locate a star, or even the moon- which had been extremely bright tonight- if she tried.

"Kweh..." the Chocobo's wings snapped from it's sides, as it got into what Yuffie could only assume was a battle posture. Yuffie was about to comment, when she noticed something- the shadows of the tree had started to ripple, and the shadow had little pieces of darkness leaving it- five in all, which drifted around the base of the tree, before suddenly springing up. They were only about two foot tall, had chubby bodies with fat heads, and stubby arms. Their yellow eyes completed their look- they looked dorky, yet, Yuffie felt a menacing air about them.

The five of them wobbled up and down, watching her and the Chocobo with greedy eyes. Yuffie stared at them- not moving. She didn't know what to do- she had never seen anything such as this. However, she was suddenly brought out of her daze when the Chocobo's head came in contact with her feet, pushing her higher up the tree rather forcefully. Yuffie got the hint, and pulled her self up into the higher branches of the tree- taking the video camera out of her hands and deciding it was better _not_ to record these creatures- She knew that anyone that saw them on a recording, wouldn't think they were real.

Balancing her weight on all of the branches as not to break them, as she took the camera and attached it to a belt that was under her shirt- which allowed her to sneak items with her quite easily.

Yuffie's attention was brought down below, at the Chocobo, still adorning the Santa Hat, stared down the strange creatures. Suddenly, one to his left lunged at him, and he quickly stepped to the side, dodging it quite skillfully before slamming it up against the tree, causing it to burst into darkness. Yuffie couldn't help but be impressed by the creature's fighting ability, especially when another one of those creatures lunged at it from behind, and the Chocobo pulled a swift turn, slashing it across the face with it's talon before head butting it, sending it spiraling backwards.

Two more lunged from either side of the Chocobo, going for each of his wings. Yuffie thought, for a moment, that it was smirking-But decided that she was seeing things, as the bird jumped forward, and allowed the two heartless to smash into each other, before turning sharply and facing them. It squawked, as if _disappointed_ that they weren't getting up faster.

However, in the Chocobo's haste, it failed to notice the heartless sneaking up from behind- the same one it had attacked before. Yuffie was in action before she realized it- she had jumped down from the tree, a suriken in hand as she threw it at the creature before she landed, slicing into it's forehead. As soon as she did land, she did a sweeping kick to it's stomach, causing the persistent beast to melt away into a shadowy wisp, much to her bemusement.

"Kweh!" she assumed she was getting a thank you from the bird, as it turned it's head to the side to glance at her with an almost... Smug expression? She nodded, before turning to stare at the creatures before her- she refused to be a coward. If a big yellow bird could fight, so could she!

Yuffie spotted one, and she lunged for it, only for it to melt away into darkness and sweep into the ground. She blinked, but didn't get much of a chance to react as she felt a horrible sensation in her back- as if cold ice was being stabbed slowly, and painfully into her back. Hissing in between her teeth, she fell onto her knee, taking in shallow breaths.

"Wark!" Yuffie's eyes snapped open as she felt the pain dull. She flipped around, crouched onto one foot with her other stretched out behind her, to see the Chocobo- now hatless- with the heartless under it's talon. It stared at her, before it made a simple; "Kweh."

With that, it crushed the heartless under it's foot, before turning towards the two other heartless left over. He glanced at them, before looking back at Yuffie. As if coming to a decision, it warked loudly and lowered it's head, forcing it under Yuffie in an attempt to get the girl up.

She got what it was saying, and she stood up, hunching over before she pulled herself onto the Chocobo's back- with much trouble, as her back was currently oozing out a slow trail of blood. She didn't have much of a time to get adjusted, before the Chocobo sped off. Hissing in between her teeth, she got a suddenly wave of sick, but managed to grip onto the bird's neck feathers and do her best to ignore it.

She wasn't really paying attention to anything- her vision was getting fuzzy. She was still taking shallow breaths, and the fact that she got sick very easily when she was the passenger on just about _anything_ didn't help out much.

Yuffie felt a strong lurched in her stomach, before she leaned forward, closing her eyes before slowly, everything became black.

* * *

Chapter two, end.

S.O.H


	3. Chapter III

**Yellow Haze- **_**Chapter III:** Saturday Morning After_

Everyone knows when they wake up in a bed that isn't theirs- you might not be aware that's what's wrong, but you'll know that _something_ is wrong. Once one figures out that they aren't in their correct bed, they either do one of the following-

A) Look around frantically, very confused.

B) Check to see if they happen to be naked.

C) Panic when they can't remember what they did last night.

Or D) All of the above.

However, Yuffie was never one to follow standards- as soon as she awoke, she did, indeed know something was wrong. She knew she was in a bed, but when she went to pull herself upwards, she felt the sharpest of pains running through her head and down to her stomach. Wincing, she fell back onto the bed, grumbling as she noticed that the bed wasn't comfortable at all. In fact, it felt as if she was sleeping on the floor.

Groaning, she opened her eyes- only to regret it instantly. She must have been right next to a window- as the light from the nearby window made her brain feel like it was crushing her brain and reforming it, only to crush it once again. She lifted her hand to her forehead, deciding that she had to get up- she didn't know where she was, and her brain was currently too jumbled up to think _how_. Shaking her head, she pushed herself forward, only to be pushed back down.

She yelped, attempting to struggle against the sudden appearance of someone, or _something_ that had pushed her back onto the bed. However, every movement stung. Deciding to take the easy way out, she slowly opened her eyes- her vision blurry before it quickly cleared up.

She blinked when she was greeted at the sight of a very tall person, now leaning up against the wall near the window- she assumed he had moved to push her down, before moving back. They were definitely male, as Yuffie hoped to every God she knew of that no woman could be that manly.

They were wearing a large black trench coat, and as she allowed her gaze to wonder upwards, taking in the strange metal pieces on the coat, and the ripped up sleeve- before falling onto the face. Blonde hair was spiked up in one of the most ridiculous fashions she'd ever seen. In fact, his hair in general was ridiculous- so yellow that it was almost neon. The next thing she noticed were his eyes- they were a deep shade of blue with the softest undertone of green- she realized she was staring at him very openly to have noticed such a small detail.

A long silence stretched out on them- Yuffie didn't notice that no one was talking until he spoke, as before, she could have _almost_ sworn they were having a silent conversation, about what- she would never know.

"Don't move." it was a simple statement, and he didn't even bother adding more onto it, he merely allowed it to hang in the air as he stared her down- in a matter, for some reason, she didn't find challenging in the least.

"Listen here buddy, I don't know where the hell I am and- Wait, who in the blazing hell are you?" she snapped, having no intention of moving yet- but would move, if he came to close. It was the smart thing to do, and currently, she wasn't listening to the other part of her that told her she was safe.

He seemed insulted, or perhaps put off- he was experiencing something at that question, Yuffie was sure- there was a soft flicker in those eyes, and suddenly he didn't seem as open as he had been before. "You're at my house, in my bed, and you've got a bad wound which makes you very lucky that you're still alive." his voice was rather monotonous, as if he didn't want anyone to ever know what he was feeling- Or, he was just that bored with life.

Something clicked in Yuffie's head, as she reached down and started to feel her stomach area. She cursed loudly when she didn't find her camera- in fact, she wasn't even wearing the same clothes as before, instead of her usual mildly, tight fitting clothing- she was wearing a very, very baggy black shirt. "What the hell?! Where's my camera? Why aren't I wearing my clothing?!" she went to stand up, forgetting her injury as she hissed, before falling back onto the bed. "You've got alotta explain' to do here, Spikes!"

'Spikes' walked forward, before speaking as calmly as before. "One question at a time- and don't move, you'll reopen your wound and I'll have to bandage you again."

Yuffie took a deep breath, grumbling before speaking. "First, what's your name- Actually, I don't really care. Where are my clothes?"

"In the wash."

"Good, now, why _aren't_ I wearing them?"

"Because I had to bandage your wound."

Once again, Yuffie was brought back to the night before, and she almost jumped up- but 'Spikes' placed a hand on her shoulder, and pushed her back down firmly but gently. "Where's my camera?! How the hell did I end up here?! Where'd that Chocobo go?!"

'Spikes' narrowed his eyebrows, before he spoke- a new edge to his voice that made Yuffie rather uncomfortable. "It's broken, I found you nearby, and there was no Chocobo around you when I found you."

Yuffie frowned, before looking very dejected, her short attention span really only allowing her to deal with one issue at a time. "Oh no, oh no- It's broken? How badly?" she questioned, looking up at 'Spikes' hopefully.

"I think the only thing that's broken is the tape inside."

Yuffie now knew the meaning of the word 'crushed'.

"NOOO!!" she cried rather loudly, causing the man to withdraw like he'd been brunt. "I needed that tape! Without that I've got nothing towards my project, not even any bloody research! Oh god damnnit. I'm going to fail." she crossed her arms over her chest, wincing a bit as it somehow put some strain on her back, before glancing up at 'Spikes'.

He looked down at her, raising a thin eyebrow- the first emotion she'd ever really seen from him. "What's it on?" he inquired- yet, he managed to say it in such away that it didn't even sound like he cared- as if he was just inquiring to calm her down in someway.

"I had to look up myths and stuff, and why they exist, by focusing on certain subjects. My subject was the Chocobo sightings recently." she pouted, before sighing- watching him keenly as he looked away from her, as if he was thinking about something.

Now that she thought about it, something about him... Seemed very familiar- she couldn't place it. Never to let a question go unanswered, she decided to voice it. "Why'doyah look familiar?"

"Because I go to your school."

Something once again clicked in Yuffie's brain, and she grinned. "Yeah, now I remember- Your names' Cloud!" she exclaimed, causing him to nod slowly.

He moved away from the bed, before stopping at the door. "I'll get your things and give you something to make you feel better, then you're free to go." he spoke with his face still towards the door, before he opened it and walked out, closing it behind him.

Now alone, Yuffie rested back onto the bed, thinking silently. What... Were those things last night? Where did that Chocobo go? There were so many unanswered questions that she wished she knew the answer to- but a part of her was afraid to find out the truth, because she had a feeling that once she found out the truth, then she'd never be able to go back.

To go back to _what_, Yuffie wasn't exactly sure.

* * *

Yuffie woke with a start, not knowing that she had even fallen asleep _until_ she had awoken. Blinking to get the sleep out of her eyes, she noticed it was now dark- her heart pounded in her chest, as she looked around wildly- her eyes fell upon the clock, as she breathed in a sigh of relief as she saw the clock on the bedside table, as it currently only read _5:59 PM_. She didn't even bother to ponder on how much of an interesting time that was to wake up at- besides, something else had grabbed her attention.

Besides the clock were her clothes, folded quite neatly and tied together with a piece of yellow fabric. Atop that, was a folded piece of paper- so, slowly she wiggled upwards, surprised when she didn't get a sharp pain in return for her movement. If anything, the most she had felt was a dull throb.

She picked up the note and unread it, even more surprised then she had been moments before at the extremely neat and fancy hand writing.

_'Yuffie,_

_You won't remember, but I gave you some medication. Your clothes are there and the cameras' under your clothes'_-Yuffie paused to lift the clothes up, and indeed, her camera was there- she was mildly ashamed at herself for not noticing before.-_'I'm not in the house at the moment, but the exit is just outside the door and down the stairs. You **can't** miss it.'_

"Wow, what a jerk." she mumbled to herself, crumpling the note into a ball and throwing it over her shoulder. He was so rude and dismissive, and she was pretty sure that he'd said more in that note then he had said to her in that conversation that she had with him before- which, would have been more productive if she was talking to a brick wall... With a mental handicap. Like down-syndrome, or maybe...

Sighing she decided to not think about mental handicaps- instead, she picked up her stuff- noticing only now that she was wearing baggy black jeans.

Placing her camera under one arm, and her clothes under the other before heading towards the door, a little stiff as Cloud hadn't removed her bandages. Opening the door with some difficultly, she was outside of his house within a few moments- she hadn't even paused to look around, deciding that if he wanted her out so badly, she'd leave.

It wasn't until she was halfway to her house...

That she realized she hadn't told Cloud her name.

* * *

End Chapter Three.

S.O.H


	4. Chapter IV

Just a small thanks to the support of the reviewers.. There doesn't seem to be many, but they seem to like this story. So, that's all that matters. XD

* * *

**Y.E.LL.O.W H.A.Z.E- **_**Chapter IV: **And I can't see at all._

Yuffie could write a book.

Oh what subject, you may ask?

On the fact that she had way too much stuff happening that gave her the motivation to stick a kunai in someone's eye.

Let's start at the beginning.

* * *

As soon as Yuffie had gotten home, she had been greeted by a very pissed of Cid. He had then proceeded to yell at her for a good hour straight, exposing her to so many different types of curses, she now had a library filled with interesting insults involving throats, spears, and behinds- Hell, she could write a book on that, too...

To digress, Yuffie had ended up with a huge sore throat after engaging in a yelling fit with Cid. If it hadn't been for the fact that they had done this before, and the neighborhood was very used to these kinds of things happening- so when threats of death were screamed into the night air, they merely went on their merry little ways, acting as if it was just the sound of a little bird singing.

Long story short, Yuffie ended up with both a headache, and a pretty hefty grounding.

But, that was merely the first serving.

Currently, it was a Monday morning- and Yuffie was walking to school.

_Why?_

Because she had woken up late and missed her bus. She hadn't gotten a chance to grab anything to eat, and she knew that in a couple hours she was going to be dreadfully hungry- and it was a very well known fact that Yuffie _loathed_ hungry with each and every fiber of her being.

If being grounded, being hungry, and being late for school weren't enough...

Yuffie was still totally screwed for her project.

The project that would either make her, or break her.

Grumbling as she heard the rather loud noise of the school bell ringing, she realized she'd reached the school, much to her pleasure.

Even if that bell meant that she was most definitely late.

Shrugging, and deciding that she'd end up strangling the closet creature she walked into the school. She was heading towards her locker as quickly as possible- paying no mind to the left over students in the hallway- they were either those that suffered from chronic tardiness, or students that just didn't care about being in class in the first place. Tanking her way through the hallways, she stumbled upon her locker, turning to it and spinning the dial.

She yelped in surprise when a large amount of paper fell out. Letting out a string of curses, she went down onto one knee gathered all of the scattered paper- with she noticed must have been printed off of the computer, due to the font. Shrugging her shoulders, she finally got the mess... Manageable. Standing up, she pushed the papers into her locker, before pausing as she caught sight of something. Turning her head to the side, with her hands still inside the locker, she stared at the note that was so elegantly taped to her locker door.

Raising an eyebrow, she gave one final shove to the papers, before in one swift movement- If Yuffie had friends, she would have bragged to them- she had grabbed her binder and the note and closed it. Dropping her binder to the ground, she locked her locker before sitting down onto the ground- leaning her back up against it. Slowly, she unfolded the piece of paper- not knowing how to react when she read what was inside- recognizing that handwriting anywhere.

_Yuffie,_

_Felt sorry for you. Did your work for you.'_

Now, Yuffie was a little freaked out. She had assumed that Cloud had known her name because- well, a lot of people knew who she was. But her locker? Her combination? Then again... It wasn't that hard to break into someone's locker.

Sighing, she folded the piece of paper into her pocket before standing up. Just as she was about to head into class, however, a loud announcement boomed over the overhead systems, filling the hallways, the bathrooms; and the classrooms.

"Would all students please report to the gym for an assembly."

* * *

Yuffie kicked her feet up onto the chair in front of her- the Gym-as usual- looked different- a strange rubber carpet had been placed all over the wooden floors of the Gym, as crappy, plastic, blue chairs had been placed everywhere and students and teachers were currently piling in. Yuffie rolled her eyes skyward, before placing her hands behind her head. Assemblies were usually very boring and all about how people should have more school spirit. Never the less, they were better then classes- or the in-school suspensions she used to get when she didn't care about school at all.

Finally, the Principals stood in front of the school, her hands gripping onto the pier in front of her. The spot light was on her and she didn't seem to care- instead, she looked rightly pissed. "Now, this wasn't a planned assembly... Yesterday night, sometime around twelve after the last janitor left... We had a break in. Now, nothing was stolen, but some of the school was left a mess, and the doors where left open. Although nothing was stolen, this is very upsetting- we are pretty sure that this was done by a student here. We are very disturbed to hear this- and if anyone knows anything, we'd like for you to inform us as soon as possible. Breaking into the school just for thrills is still wrong, and doing so shows how little school spirit we've been showing recently..."

Yuffie tuned out the rest of what she was saying, closing her eyes as her stomach rumbled loudly and painfully. What was going on currently with the school didn't interest her at all, why should she care if someone broke in? Not like it effected her- and for Heaven's sake, they didn't even take anything! Yuffie was pretty sure that the Principal just wanted a chance to rant on about her most beloved subject ever- school spirit.

* * *

Squall raised an eyebrow at his friend, folding his arms over his chest as he spoke calmly. "How should I know she'd would have picked that? Plus, you're the one that helped her find out more information." when his comrade stared him down coolly, he looked away. "Oh yes, I forgot, you couldn't let her fail." he was being sarcastic, and didn't even seem to flinch at the cold glare he was getting in return.

"From what you say, she's none the wiser. Just shut up and do what you usually do."

His friend glared at him, before shaking his head and walking off. Squall, however, merely shrugged, closing his eyes and leaning back against the wall behind him- despite the cold aura radiating off of him, he still managed to look smug.

"Whatever."

* * *

End Chapter Four.

S.O.H


	5. Chapter V

Y.E.L.L.O.W_Haze__** Chapter V-** Strike Two._

* * *

It was still a Monday.

Yuffie was _still_ hungry.

Currently, Yuffie was enjoying the many pleasures of lunch- well, not really. She was enjoying the freedom of not being in class- but she was still doing work. Yuffie had decided to look over the research Spikes had done for her. Now, most people would be doing their research in the library- but, of course, as many have come to discover through many events-

Yuffie was _not_ most people.

Yuffie had made her way to the roof- one wasn't exactly suppose to be here, but since did Yuffie follow the rules? Once she had gotten atop the roof, she had perched on the edge of the building, not really caring if anyone saw her. She had gotten so good at keeping her balance on the edge, that she didn't need to pay attention to where she was at all- so, that would explain why she was currently enthralled with her her reading.

After short while, she looked up- a grin on her features. This research was perfect! He'd done everything for her, and all she really had to do was organize it and make it look pretty- before putting her conclusion and opinion at the bottom. She made a mental note to thank Spikes- if she ever saw him again, the boy seemed to be extremely reclusive. Besides getting her that research, whatever he had given her had healed her wounds quite nicely- she couldn't even feel them anymore, and when she'd looked in the mirror- which had been difficult, considering the wound had been on the back- and she hadn't even noticed a scar.

Just as she stood up straight, she found herself experiencing the pain only know as hunger. Oh, she had been hungry before- but she had been so in tranced by her reading she hadn't really noticed. Now, she had a horrible hunger, and no money to buy herself some food. Whining to herself, she turned and jumped off the edge, landing on the roof before making her way to the hut-like structure that had a door, which would lead her to the staircase.

However, half way down the stairs- the hunger seemed to get worse. Now, she felt physically ill. Grumbling, she decided that she would go walk home and get something to eat- she could have slapped herself, as if she had done that at the beginning of lunch, then she could have gone there and gotten back without being late for next period. Now that she thought about it, her next period was only English- she could skip that easily, without getting in trouble. Now that she thought about it, Cid wouldn't be getting home until six today- he'd be none the wiser...

Plus, she hadn't skipped in ages- she was afraid she'd forget how to.

Yeah, that's it...

* * *

"Grrrrr..." Yuffie was currently growling to herself- rather, her stomach was growling at _her_. Normally, Yuffie could tank through this walk- but everything was always harder for her when she was craving a chocolate covered sundae.. Or something equally as delicious. Sighing, she adjusted her binder underneath her arm and continued on her way. She knew that their was some serious in this matter- last time she didn't eat till lunch she had passed out. Which had been embarrassing, as great Ninjas don't pass out!

Yuffie stopped, deciding to take a short cut. There was a old man that had a little gathering of trees in his backyard, that if you went straight through, you could easily get to her street. She never understood why people never took it, as the man was really nice and didn't care- she assumed that most people were idiots and assumed that a gathering of trees was a 'big forest' that you could get 'lost in'.

"Nyuk, Nyuk, nyuk." Yuffie laughed to herself, before walking down the old man's driveway and into his backyard. She paused, however- when she felt... She felt as if something was off. Suddenly, she felt disgusted with herself- assuming that she was afraid of a little gathering of trees! "Yuffie! You're losing it." shaking her head, she proceeded onward, humming a little tune.

She hadn't noticed how the shadows seemed to stretch onward today, or how the air tasted stale. Looking back, she would wish that she had- because maybe then, she would have expected it.

The shadows sprung up, and Yuffie threw her binder to the side, instantly getting into a battle stance. It was those... Those creatures again. They instilled an instant feeling of fear inside of her, and activated every single battle instinct she had learned over the years.

There was six in all, and they had gathered around her in a circle, moving up and down slowly- she had figured out _that_ was their battle stance. Suddenly, one jumped up onto a rather large tree root- and the others reacted, charging towards Yuffie with the same nasty intentions as before- at least, Yuffie assumed that.

Actually, She really didn't care what they wanted with her- as she jumped up into the air, grasping onto a branch above her and pulling herself up. It moaned and cracked under her weight, and she decided she would jump away before it broke- and she did, lunging off of the branch as the creatures looked up. Turning in mid air, she placed her foot up against a tree that had been across from her, pulling a shuriken out from her sleeve and throwing it at one of the creatures.

It squealed loudly, recoiling backwards as it's antenna- which Yuffie had never noticed before- whipped up and down. Yuffie landed before it, kicking it in the face before jumping up- before the other heartless could strike her. Grabbing onto another branch, she hung from it- not pulling herself up. Looking down, she realized that attack had destroyed it. Despite the fact she was starving, and a little bit weak, these things were actually very easy to kill... If she kept her head in the game.

Deciding not to become distracted, she dropped down from the branch- just in time, as one of the creatures had turned into a shadow once more, and slid up the tree, looking like it wanted to strike her hand.

When she came down to the ground, she dashed forward, pulling out two shurikens and throwing them at one of the creatures at each side of her. She really wished that she had her huge shuriken- but that had been left back at Godo's, said father thinking it best that she learn how to survive without her best weapon.

The shuriken hit their mark, as she knew the would- sending the two creatures backwards. The would be distracted them for now- but Yuffie's attention was on the another one of the stubby creatures that was chasing her, little legs moving in a ridiculously speedy manner as it waved it's arms up and down. Yuffie smirked, slowing down and allowing it to gain some ground on her, as the other creatures started to close in.

She was heading straight for a tree, and she sped up at the last moment- running up straight up the tree before flipping backwards, throwing a shuriken down towards the creature that had been chasing her, before landing on the ground behind it- her back towards. A smirk touched her lips when she realized that she'd hit her target, before dropping down to the ground and supporting herself with her hands, doing a sweeping kick and in turn, causing it to disappear into a wisp of shadow. Yuffie's smirk grew, but she knew that she couldn't get cocky- yet, at least.

Two down, four to go.

Yuffie leaped like a frog into the air, dodging the creatures that had attempted to lung at her- she'd found her next two victims, those creatures that still had her shurikens in bended deeply into their bodies. Landing on the ground in a crouch, she stood up and forward, dodging the slash of another one of those creatures. They were getting smarter- which wasn't much of a threat, because they were as dumb as a bucket. But, currently, there were trying to surround her from all corners again- coming in slowly.

"Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk! You'll have to do better then that, you buggy-eyed freaks! I'm not a great Ninja for nothing!" she exclaimed loudly, for all the world to hear- before jumping over the creature in front of her and landing on the ground, landing in a crouch before once again using her hand to support herself and doing another sweeping kick. She nailed it's stubby legs, causing it to fall flat on it's face. Bringing her leg in, she dashed past it's recovering body, running towards one of the creatures with a shuriken in it's body.

However, it melted down into the ground. Yuffie wasn't going to fall for the same trick again, so she turned- throwing a shuriken behind her. She heard the sound of.. A small explosion, as upon turning around- she noticed that the creature had turned into a wisp. Yuffie decided that they all died like this, before turning and looking around..

Three down, three to go.

She didn't see anything at first- but upon looking down, she saw shadows moving on the ground back and fourth. Feeling uneasy knowing that they could pop up at any moment, she leaped into the air, grabbing onto a branch and using to flip herself into the air- landing on a thicker and stronger branch above the one she had used to flip. The branches were weak, considering that it was winter- even if there wasn't any snow on the ground- and Yuffie didn't want to make the same mistake as that time in the park.

The creatures all appeared at once, and Yuffie couldn't tell them apart- her shurikens hadn't stayed in the creatures' body. Shrugging this fact off, she jumped off of the branch and dived downwards towards her foes.

She landed on her hands and they lunged at her- claws out and teeth drawn, but ignoring the hissing pain in her wrists she rolled forward, barely dodging their attacks as she jumped up out of the roll and landed on her feet. Turning around in a swift motion, she threw three shurikens, feeling herself getting tired and knowing that she couldn't keep this battle going on forever. Despite the fact that they were weak, she hadn't battled anything like them before.

Two of the shurikens hit their mark, while the three creature turned into a shadow which caused her shuriken to miss and get stuck into the ground. The Ninja then dropped to the ground and did her favorite and most effective kick- the sweeping one. Both heartless exploded into a wisp upon contact, but she ignored it- picking up the three left over shurikens and getting up, knowing that the last beast could be anywhere.

And it was.

It came out from her left, lunging at her and slashing her from the side- she fell for it again!

Cursing, she lunged towards her right and kicked up, smoking the creature in the face as her body pivoted to the side. She then took a deep breath, now at peace but ungodly tired. The creature had wounded her arm, but it was only a couple slashes- no biggy. Shrugging it off, she collected the shurikens she could find before placing them within the compartments in her sleeves, her mind clouded with thoughts as she found her binder and picked it up. What... What were those things? When she recalled that night in the park, she had hoped that she had _really_ fallen from that tree and knocked herself out, and all that happened was a dream. But now...

She shook her head, walking faster then she had been before. Whatever they were, she didn't feel safe being here- she needed food, and she needed rest.

"Nyuck! I own them, stupid buggy eyed, chubby midgets." she was now on her street, no longer in the little thicket of trees. Heading towards her house, she decided she wasn't going back to school-

Hell, might as well skip the whole thing.

* * *

Chapter Five, end.

S.O.H


	6. Chapter VI

YELLOWHAZE  
**_CHAPTER_: IV**

Third Strike

* * *

Oh god, Yuffie's wrist killed.

Not only had Yuffie been in a rather large fight- by her standards, usually she just hit once and she was out again- but she'd been writing since she had been home, attempting to finish her project. Since she no longer had that tape, she was going to make a large research paper, telling the how, whys, and wheres. So far, she was onto her third page- single spaced, and she wasn't even half way done.

She shook her head, before slamming her pencil onto the table. "Break time!" she stood up, walking away from the table but stopped. Her arm had started to hurt when she'd gotten home, and although it wasn't deep at all- it stung. She noted how sometimes it wouldn't hurt at all, and other times it would send waves of an annoying ache to her body. The Ninja had figured that it had something to do with _what_ had cut her.

Heading towards her bed, she laid down onto it- thinking. Why hadn't anything like this had happened before- and most importantly, why was it only happening now? Yuffie didn't know, but she realized now that she wanted to find out. She got off of her bed, sparing a glance out of her window- she made up her mind, getting a determined look onto her features.

Walking to her door, she listened to the sounds outside of it. When she heard Cid snoring and the sounds of the TV- she knew that she was in the clear. Once he was out, he was out cold- it would take an earthquake and a large offering of booze and cigarettes to get him up. Walking to her closet, she looked at the box at the bottom of the shelf _in _said closet and pulled it out. Inside, were a various amount of shurikens. She always had carried some on her, but since Friday, she had started carrying a little more- and tonight, she was planning for the case of a fight- so she took a large amount out, before putting the box back into it's rightful place.

She carried them to her bed and dropped them there, before ducking under said bed and pulling out another box. Here, she kept the other things Ninjas often used- Smoke bombs, Kunai... However, she herself rarely used them- but today, she felt that it might be a good idea to bring a smoke bomb with her. Finding one that was a good size and appeared to be made well, she picked it up and set it outside of the box before placing the box back underneath her bed.

She got ready quite quickly- placing her shurikens in her sleeves, and other compartments on her Ninja clothing- she loved her Ninja clothing, because it appeared to be normal, but really, it was designed to hide weapons. She had placed her smoke bomb on her inner thigh, and after that- she was ready to roll.

Yuffie silently walked to her window before opening it, looking down at the pretty far fall down- before looking at the tree next to her house. She looked back over her shoulder- before in two leaps, she went from the window sill to the branch, and to the ground- landing on her feet with her knees bent, a hand on the ground.

"Time to roll."

* * *

The night was crisp- the clouds were covering the sky, and it was cold. Yet, Yuffie didn't mind- it the good kind of0000000000000000 cold, not the cold that those big-eyed freaks brought. Currently, she was perched on a bridge railing, one that wasn't too far away from her house in nearby a large amount of houses. For some ungodly reason, she couldn't find Spikes' house. She wanted to find him, because for some reason, she felt like he knew something. Something he wasn't telling her.

"Damn. I should be able to find him..." she pouted, folding her arms over her chest. She wasn't a great Ninja for nothing- and great ninjas can find things easily, most impotently- People. Yuffie was starting to lose more and more faith in her abilities daily...

The air suddenly became stale and cold.

Yuffie knew this cold- and she knew she didn't want to fight here. No, this was nearby houses- it wasn't safe. Scanning her gray gaze around, she figured that the best place was to go was the nearby playground- it was a good distance from anyone's house.

Jumping off of the railing, she landed on the sidewalk and took off down the street- sneakers making squeaks against the rough pavement. She had jumped off just in time- the shadows had started to twitch and ripple, signaling that _they_ were coming.

Yuffie was fast, and that was something she was proud of.

She soon was at the playground, glad that the nearby trees shadowed the playground from other people- but wary, as that meant more places for those creatures to appear. Never the less, she jumped onto the yellow slide and onto the nearby monkey bars, standing atop them and looking down.

Below her, they appeared.

The wound on her arm started to tingle a bit, and she suddenly felt hallow- these weren't the creatures she was used to.

No.

They were taller, and covered with armor. Lanky, they jumped up and down, as if dancing to a song that she couldn't hear. Their helmets jingled up and down, and they had a little funny end to them. Their hands were over-sized and had red palms, with deadly looking talons. Their blue skin didn't look like skin- it appeared to be a baggy full body suit in some places. Down by it's knees, it appeared to be to have a yellow line on it's flesh, which then lead down to purple- where, Yuffie wasn't too surprised- for some odd reason- to see boots.

Where they the same creature, but a different appearance?

Yuffie trusted her instincts, and they told her yes.

With bright, neon flashing lights...

But yes, none-the-less.

She had a feeling they were stronger- and so, she took out two shurikens before diving down. She landed in front of them, and threw her shurikens at the creature. The first one hit it's helmet and bounced off with a sharp cling of metal, as the other one hit it in the chest. She didn't want to take any chances, and she dashed towards it. It tilted it's head to the side, before charging at her as well- the other ones watching and waiting their chance to strike.

Yuffie jumped up at the last moment- when it went to slash. She came down with her foot on it's chest, knocking it onto it's back and forced herself into the air- before pulling out another shuriken while in the air- spinning in the air and throwing the shuriken down towards the creature's chest. It made contact, digging into it's flesh before it turned around, hissing and snarling.

Yuffie landed on the ground in a crouch, narrowing her eyes. They _were_ harder to kill! Eyes still narrowed, she pushed off the ground and dived at that straight one- only to be intercepted. Another one of them dropped down in front of her- causing her to break suddenly and jump over it- her foot coming down onto it's head as she pushed herself into the air- causing it's helmet to close tightly over it's face.

The Ninja kicked the creature she had picked out before, as it exploded into a wisp of darkness. She landed, turning and looking around. There were only four left, and one of them was trying to open up it's helmet.

She took this chance- as the other three attempted to strike her, she jumped at the unaware heartless and grabbed it's throat and threw it into the air. At the sudden contact, her hand felt like it had been burnt- but she decided not to pay it any mind, as paying attention to injuries in battle could make them worse as your enemy took advantage of your distracted state.

The creature in the air, she threw a shuriken at it's back- glad she had taken a large amount of them with her- before jumping upwards- flipping in the air and kicking the creature in the back, pushing the shuriken further into it's body. She lucked out, as it to exploded into a wisp of shadowy smoke.

Landing on all fours, she slowly got up- looking smug at the three. However, suddenly- the air only got colder, as she felt a shiver go down her back. In a blink of an eye, she was surrounded. There had to be eight of those fat monsters around her, which caused that smug look to disappear right off of her face.

"That's not fair!"

* * *

End Chapter, Six.

S.O.H


	7. Chapter VII

Yes, Chaotic- I do update a lot, and yes to all your other questions.

* * *

**YellowH.A.Z._E- CHAPTER _IVV:**

_Final **Strike**._

* * *

"Well, this sucks."

Yuffie couldn't help it- she was surrounded by a bunch of monsters, and she highly doubted she could take them all on at once.

As if sensing her thoughts, two of the stubby ones charged forward. Yuffie cursed, jumping from her spot and forcing her legs to take her farther- gripping onto one of the supporting bars that held the monkey bars up, before climbing her way up quickly. Once atop the red structure, she looked down at the large amount of monsters below her, pulling out a shuriken. Yuffie's plan was to distract them a little bit, before pulling out her smoke bomb and making a good get away- she just needed to find a place that would allow her a good get away.

"Nyuk! You're not going to take me down that easily!"

"Hrrrrrr!"

However, just as Yuffie was about to go into a gloating feast- that would have caused the monsters to gawk at her in a mixture of confusion and awe- Yuffie was interrupted.

Yuffie could only watch as a blur of black lunged down, and in two movements had slashed... Something large and silver across the monsters, destroying at least five of them. When the figure finally stilled, she saw who it was.

"Spikes!"

He paused, looking up at her with a raised eyebrow. Hey! Who was _he_ to be the confused one? Last she checked, normal people like Spike-y butt didn't carry around swords bigger then she was, wrapped up in bandages and appear out of no where. Hell, she thought _she_ was weird.

"Get out of here!" he yelled, before turning and diving at another one of those creatures- one of the fat ones. Currently, there were two of those knight guys, and four of those fat bugs. As soon as he brought his sword down and destroyed it in one strong slash, three more bugs appeared out of no where, followed by one of those knights. He didn't seem to care, as he brought his sword down on a nearby bug-thing.

"No! I've dealt with these things already today, Blondie!" she was about to raise her hand to throw a shuriken, when she noticed something... The hand she had touched that heartless with was horribly burnt- although the skin didn't hurt, it was red and a little bit disgusting. Shaking it off, she looked down- watching Spikes back away from the group of heartless slowly, holding his sword in front of him.

Smirking, Yuffie lunged down, landing behind one of the knight-look-a-likes and kicking her foot out, smoking it in the back of the head. The sound of sneaker hitting metal caused the other creatures to look up at her- hell, even Spikes shot her a look. She grinned cheekily, before giving a half wave at the blond haired warrior. He narrowed his eyes, before muttering something to himself.

He seemed to be focusing on something- Pah! Leaving a woman to do all the work for him. She was brought out of her thoughts when one of the Knight-thingys lunged at her, going for the face with it's little mouth opened into a feral grin.

"Nyuk!" Yuffie threw the shuriken that had been close to her hand for awhile- getting the creature right in the mouth before she kicked it in the stomach- causing it to disappear into a wisp of smoke. She panted, turning around just in time to dodge a bug-things' back attack. They weren't taking hostages now- they were all trying to hit her- causing her to jump up and down, side to side. "You'll have to do better then that!"

And so, they did.

One of the knight-things she hadn't been paying attention got her on her leg, before attempting to dig it's claws into her flesh and bite in. She hissed in between her teeth, before kicking her leg outward and bringing her fist down onto it's face. It let go, recoiling backwards as she jumped over it, getting out of the close circle those monsters had enclosed around her.

Her leg was throbbing and her hand was tingling. Slowly, she stood up straight, watching as the monsters slowly approached her.

"Fahhhhh!"

luckily for her, Spikes finished what he had been attempting to do- suddenly, he lunged forward, his sword glowing as he dashed back and fourth, cutting into monster flesh and causing wisps of shadow to appear in his wake. He only stopped when they were all gone, as his sword stopped glowing. In response, he pushed the sword into the ground and panted heavily, sweat gathering on his forehead.

Yuffie grinned, before walking over to him- she was limping, but she did her best to mask it, as Ninjas could never allow anyone to know how injured they were- and gave him a joking shove into his shoulder. "Nice move there, Spikes. Thanks for the help and research, but if you would excuse me..." she trailed off- before, she had wanted to ask him so many questions, but now that she was face to face with him, she couldn't even remember why she wanted to find him in the first place- he had away of making her forget things.

"No." he spoke, standing up straight but still leaning on his sword a bit, blue eyes staring her down as she walked away.

She froze, before laughing nervously and turning slowly- suddenly feeling as if she had gotten caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar. "No?"

"You said that this wasn't the first time you had faced those monsters today."

"Yeah? A couple of those buggy eyed mini freaks jumped me- Hey! What're you doing?!"

Cloud had placed his sword onto his back, before walking over to her and staring her down. He seemed to be thinking about something, and Yuffie took this as her chance to attempt another get away.

"So yeah, this has been an excellent conversation- really nice, we should do it some oth-Hey! Lemme go!"

With one swift movement, Cloud had started walking away- unfortunately, he had decided that he wanted to bring Yuffie- grabbing her by the collar of her shirt and dragging her behind him. He ignored her comment, and continued going- even when she struggled, he acted like she wasn't struggling at all.

"Lemme go!"

Oh, Yuffie would annoy the hell out of him until he did.

Which should be easy as hell, considering that being annoying was one of her favorite, and best pastimes.

* * *

"Lemmego!"

"..."

This had been going on for awhile, as Cloud had started to head to into a more populated. He had decided to ignore her- instead, he was focusing on his newfound mission... Plus, he knew no matter what he said, she would keep yelling.

"Lemmego!Lemmego! Lemmego! Spikes, you aren't letting me go yet!"

Cloud resisted the urge to flip her upside down and carry her over his shoulder. Although he knew that he wouldn't be able to shut up, he was starting to become wary- they were heading closer to people's houses, and if she brought any attention to herself- which he knew fully well that she was very good at- he would have to take measures he really didn't want to have to take.

"Spike-y, Spike-ity-spike-spike-y-butt! Lemmego! Lemmego! Lemme-"

"No."

Cloud was glad that he had his back to her, because when she whined rather loudly, he had allowed a small, but very visible smirk to come to his lips. Luckily for Cloud, they had come to the house he needed to get to before she had attracted anyone's attention.

The house was large and brown, and appeared to be made out of bricks- it was strange, as it stuck out like a sore thumb when placed beside most of the houses one would see in the neighborhood. Cloud had stopped, and spared a look towards Yuffie- whom was very confused, staring up at the house as if she had never seen a house like it before.

_'Which she hasn't'_ Cloud thought silently, before speaking. "We're here." he spoke calmly, causing Yuffie to snap her head to his direction.

"Lemme-You mean, _your_ here? Why am I here, I should be home no-Hey! Stop draggin' me around!"

Cloud skillfully ignored her, dragging her up the pavement and paying no mind to the motorcycle in the driveway before going up the stone path and to the wooden door. Instead of a door knob, there was one of the classic knockers- this one in the shape of a lion's head with a bar in it's mouth. Lifting up his freehand, he made sure to keep a good grip on Yuffie's collar- although she had decided to sulk, arms folded over her chest with a pout on her face and Cloud was pretty sure she had no intent on running away- and dropped the metal bar onto the oak door three times.

The door opened slowly, revealing Squall, whom started speaking. "So you-" he paused when his gaze fell upon Yuffie, and for a moment, he looked unpleasantly surprised, before he narrowed an eyebrow. "Why did you bring the brat?"

"Hey! I'm not a-"

"Because she's being targeted."

"Or, you're being a paranoid-"

"-Don't talk about me like I'm not here-"

"-Twice in one day is more then a casual attack-"

"-Hey! What're you guys talking-"

"-What are we're suppose to do about it?"

"We get her informed-"

"-You're still talking about me like I'm not here..."

"That's too much of a risk, she can't find out anymore then she already knows-"

"-She can't keep fighting them, they'll just get stronger-"

"-She won't have to, it's just a coincidence you para-"

"I'm not paranoid-"

"I'M RIGHT HERE YOU FREAKS!"

Both Cloud's and Squall's heads snapped towards a fuming Yuffie, whom, using Cloud's distraction, ripped herself out of his grasp and turned to glare at both of them. She instantly calmed down when they brought their attention to her, and she grinned cheekily- but it was obviously a very mocking one, to match her very sarcastic tone- which was mildly amusing, because it still had a little bit of her whiny tone behind it.

"Now! Someone can explain what's going on calmly- and if they don't, I'm going to bring out the shurikens!"

* * *

Chapter Seven, end.

S.O.H


	8. Chapter VIII

It's not that hard, really. Although I update a lot, my chapters are a lot shorter then they'd usually be.

* * *

YELLOWHAZE

**CHAPTER VIII**

_Believe it. You've lived it._

* * *

"Whatever." Squall shrugged at brat's outburst, not really caring either way. In his opinion, Cloud was just being a reckless fool, as usual- although Cloud seemed to be the more collected, reflective type, when he could really use that kinda of personality he tented to become rash and stupid. Shrugging, he opened the door wider and nodded to Cloud, before walking into the house.

Cloud nodded in response, before nodding towards Yuffie. She raised an eyebrow, and appeared as she was about to fire off a nasty comment- but shut her mouth firmly and walked in before Cloud, the warrior walking in last and closing the door.

The inside of the house was well furnished- the walls appeared to be made out of oak, with a solid brown paint... Just like the door- in fact, everything in here seemed to be painted brown- the rug was brown, the railing to the upstairs- which Yuffie was currently standing next to, as it was on her right side- the ceiling was brown.. Brown, brown, brown- it appeared Scarface wanted his hair to match this house- although the brown of this house was a darker, richer color. There was two doorways- one a little bit in front of her to the left, at an angle that she couldn't see in, and one straight down the hallway.

Yuffie narrowed her eyes, before speaking. "Well, is someone going to explain to me what the hells' going on, or do I have to shove a-"

"Shut up, kid, and come into the living room." Squall stepped out of the closest doorway, narrowing his eyes at her as coolly as ever before retreating back into the room. Yuffie fumed, before calming down a bit- by muttering darkly under her breath, but calmed down none-the-less. Walking into the living room, she wasn't surprised to see that it was all brown- expect for the couch and chair, with was a rich red color. Going for the large chair, she fell into it, before looking at Squall with half lidded eyes.

"I'll start from the beginning- what the hell are those monsters outside?"

Squall paused for a moment, before lifting his hand up and squeezing on the bridge of his nose. Sighing, he was about to speak, before another voice cut him off.

"Heartless." Cloud cut him to the chase, walking into the room and leaning up against the wall. He was sword less, and made a point to ignore Squall's glare as he closed his eyes and folded his arms over his chest.

"Uh? And that helps me how?" Yuffie replied, raising an eyebrow but keeping her eyes half lidded still.

Squall let out another sigh. "All you need to know is that they happen to be dangerous, and they take hearts."

"So, what happens if they take my heart?"

"You turn into one."

"Well, that's very lovely, Scarface-"

"-_Leon-"_

"-_But_, that doesn't help with why I've only started seeing them now."

"He's targeted you." Cloud supplied, causing Squall to give him another glare. Cloud didn't care what Squall thought- if someone was targeted, then they needed to know everything, just not stupid bits and pieces.

"Who?"

Squall stood up, squeezing the bridge of his nose once more. "Well, since Cloud has decided to fill you in, I guess I'll have to explain everything to you..."

* * *

And Squall did just that.

A half hour later, Yuffie felt like her brain was bleeding. Squall went into every little single detail possible, and she was starting to wish she would have had the insight to ask Cloud to explain to her. He was vague as hell, but at least he wouldn't ramble on like this.

_'Who woulda thunk' a guy like Scarface would just talk and talk and talk...'_ Yuffie thought, shaking her head when he had finally decided to shut up. He sent Cloud a glance- whom hadn't moved since he'd entered the room- before turning to her once more and raising an eyebrow.

"Understood?"

"Soooooo..." Yuffie hadn't talked in awhile, it was pleasant to hear something other then Squall's rambling and very depressing voice. "Basically, there's this other realm."

"Yes."

"Well, there's many other realms. Other worlds, even. Some of these worlds, we can even go to- but one." Squall nodded, and Yuffie took it as a hint to continue on. "This world is entirely darkness. We can't enter it, but the creatures within it... They can escape." another nod. "When they come into one of our worlds, they appear randomly- in some areas, more so then others, so you're more likely to encounter more of them in some areas, then others." Squall nodded once more, and Yuffie took in a deep breath.

"When they come to our world they gather around the largest source of darkness. That was a man named Ansem- whom used to be a very well liked scientist, and most thought he had been murdered... That's what I learned in history class, anyway... But from what you guys are saying, is that he discovered a couple heartless, and liked the idea. He managed to open some sort of great way- that is still opened- and he's the reason for the heartless?"

"Yes. Done?"

"No. Because, from what you're saying, he's trying to take over all of the worlds with heartless... Usually they attack senselessly-"

"-Yes-"

"-But for some reason, Spike-y butt over here-" she motioned to Cloud, whom didn't seem to make any movement to say that he had heard her. "-Thinks I'm being targeted? I've only encountered them three times-"

"-You shouldn't been encountering them at all." Cloud suddenly hissed, as Yuffie looked at him with a raised brow. If she had been paying attention to Squall, she would have noticed him roll his eyes and mutter something under his breath.

Yuffie didn't understand why he was getting so annoyed- she had just met him a couple days ago, and he was suddenly acting like it was his job to make sure she wasn't in any danger. "Yeah well, even if I am targeted by this Ansem fool, there isn't anything I could do about it."

"There's something we can do." Squall stood up suddenly, narrowing his eyes as Cloud set him a look- Yuffie really couldn't understand all of this silent talking, but she assumed they did it because if they didn't, they would have to stop being such anti-social jerk faces.

"Oh yeah, I forgot- You're the guys that kill the heartless." Yuffie commented sarcastically, by now becoming very moody. Standing up, she folded her arms over her chest and spoke. "I'm a great Ninja, I can handle myself-"

"I've been training for the past three years." Squall interrupted, before motioning to Cloud. "He's been training longer. I think we know more then you do."

Yuffie pouted, before muttering something under her breath about scar-faced jerks. Squall shrugged casually, before turning around and walking towards the exit. With his back to Yuffie, he spoke in his monotonous voice.

"I'm going to inform Merlin." Cloud nodded, pushing off the wall finally and heading out of the room. Yuffie raised an eyebrow, knowing that Squall would follow up with an after thought- that was the difference between Cloud and Squall, one only spoke in sentences, while the other one, although still quiet, had a habit of saying something and then following up with it. When he didn't, Yuffie frowned, as she had thought she had him figured out.

Cloud reemerged with his sword upon his back, when Squall spoke again quite loudly from outside of the room- which caused her to grin widely- not because of what he said, because he _did_ say something else afterwards.

"Cloud will escort you home."

* * *

"Blah blah blah, look at me, I'm big 'ld Scarface and lookit, Take a look at my little friend!" Yuffie ranted on in her actually half decent impression of Squall, walking behind Cloud as they walked at a boring pace- at least, in Yuffie's opinion- "Blah blah blah, look at me, My names really Squall but I'm a fancy pant creepy boy with leather pants who demands to be called Leon!" she cleared her throat, before speaking again- not even caring if Cloud was listening or not.

"_Leon _Leonhart. Seriously? What kind of name is that? Couldn't have come up with something original? More original then his last name?" Yuffie paused, before smirking and flipping her hair. "Lookit me! I'm Leon Leonhart. I'm so cool that my first name is almost exactly like my last one, and oh yeah, Squall is _totally_ not my birth name, like yeah!" Yuffie once again slipped into her impression of Squall, flipping her hair once again and adding a rather flamboyant tone to her voice. "I'm like, the leader, I'm going to boss around everyone because I'm overcompensating for the fact that I'm never going to get la-"

Yuffie had stopped mid rant, when she thought she heard a sound coming for Cloud.

Was he...?

"Spikes, are you laughing?" it wasn't a huge laugh, but it was a chuckle- hell, it was barely that, perhaps the lowest form of a snicker. But it was coming from _Cloud_ and that was amazing.

Cloud didn't say anything, instead, he continued walking towards her house- she didn't know if she should be freaked out that he seemed to know where she lived, but considering she had just found out about a secret organization that was killing monsters called 'Heartless', then hey! Him knowing where she lived didn't sound so creepy in comparison. Shaking her head, she pranced in front of Cloud, causing him to stop.

"You laughed, you laughed, Spikey butt laughed!" Yuffie sung, only to have him pick her up by the collar of her shirt and drop her down beside him, before continuing onward. She then frowned, before speaking once again. "You're no fun."

"We're here." he muttered, motioning to her house. He liked to say that a lot, didn't he? Shaking her head at how fast they had gotten there, she walked to the front of her house, standing by the nearby tree that she would have to climb to get back into it unnoticed- luckily, the window was still opened. "Use the front door."

Yuffie narrowed her eyes. No one told her what to do! Hell, she'd taken enough orders for today. Marching right up to him, she matched his gaze- which was hard, because the ninja would hate to admit that his gaze was intimidating, very intimidating. She stopped only a half a foot away from him- if she had been paying attention to his eyes, she would have saw something flicker there.

"Hey, do you smoke?"

Cloud said nothing, only fixed her with a solid look, which she had come to understand meant _no._

"Well, you do now!" in one movement, she had opened up the compartment on her thigh and let the smoke bomb drop out, kicking it up into the air with her foot and catching it in her hand. She winked at him, before throwing it on the ground- causing the warrior to go into a coughing fit. When the smoke was gone, and he was no longer coughing, he looked up to the windowsill- only to see Yuffie, grinning a big grin and waving at him.

She gave him a thumbs up sign, before jumping into her room, the grin on her face never leaving as she started to walk towards her work desk.

"Nyuk, Nyuk, nyuk- and the greatest Ninja alive triumphs again!"

* * *

End chapter Eight.

S.O.H


	9. Chapter IX

Well, darn, two reviews this time- Yay. Thank you, and I'm glad people think I'm protraying this characters as in character. It's hard to get the difference between Cloud and Squall, but in my opinion, it's like this:

Cloud: He's more depressed then pissed off. He's grieving and constantly on the edge of emo. He doesn't let you know the things you're saying hurt his feelings, but they do effect him, effect him enough to want to slit his wrists..

Squall: ... Squall just hates everyone.

And yes, I know I'm mean, but it's eaiser to reconnize someone's positive points when you're willing to admit their faults- in exchange for admiting your own weakness.

By the way, I've got an idea: Anyone have any requests for humorous things to happen here? It'll be a little Christmas gift, make a request and if you've been good this year, you'll get a present from the Santa Sponge.

And, a much eaiser present: I'll do a couple drabbles for people. Got a request for a short fic? I'll take them until chapter twelve is up.

* * *

_Y.E.L.L.O.W.H.A.Z.E_

**_CHAPTER IX_**

_Unexpected._

* * *

Yuffie woke up on Tuesday, feeling amazing.

Well, she had- until she jumped out of bed in shock- in shock of _what_ you may ask?

When she'd allowed a glance to her hand, she noticed- much to her disgust- that it was still flaky and red- a couple blisters here and there. Yet, it didn't hurt- so Yuffie shook the surprise off of her, and had quickly gotten ready for school- a shower and a bowl of cereal later, she was walking out of her door, heading towards the bus stop.

She paused, however, shaking her head- No, she wasn't going to take the bus. She could walk there- she wasn't going to be a weak fool and rely on the same things that caused the people in her school to be some helpless- to be a victim to themselves.

She laughed her 'nyuk' of a chuckle as she passed a crowd of people waiting for the bus, deciding that she wouldn't insult them today.

Yuffie really wasn't as stupid as people thought she was- she too, was capable of intelligent thought- it was just... She didn't think about important issues that often.

So, what was she thinking about all class? No, she wasn't thinking about the heartless attacks, or the life changing events of last night. No, she was thinking about how she'd given Spikes a run for his money- so of course, she'd had an impish grin on her face all day long as she had chuckled deeply at the memory, causing fellow classmates to give her strange looks- a few even got a glimpse of her hand, and if Yuffie had given a chocobo's tail feathers about her social standing, she would have been afraid that people would start a rumor about her being a pyromaniac or something.

But of course, Yuffie didn't really care about anything's tail feathers.

So, as the last bell of the day rung, Yuffie practically skipped down the hallway- her grounding would be over in a couple days, school was over, and most importantly of all, she was almost finished that stupid project! Nothing could ruin today for her...

But, unfortunately for Yuffie, someone didn't get the fax that today was 'No one make Yuffie's day suck... Day.'

For, just as she was about to jump out of the school's opened back doors - the back parking lot doors were always opened after classes, it was an unspoken rule-, someone grabbed the collar of her shirt and pulled her back harshly. She coughed and sputtered before reaching up and gripping at her own collar to loosen the grip. From the corner of her eye, she saw a glowing head of blond hair, and she knew that it was Spikes- no one had hair like that, and no one wore clothes like _that- _the same clothes she'd seen on him that day she had woken up in his house-..

At least, no wore clothes like that in public.

Yuffie didn't get much of a to ponder this, as Cloud started to drag her behind him _once_ again. Yuffie pouted- glaring at his leather gloves in a rather childish manner, before reaching up with the intent of grabbing his arm in her hand- surprised that when she touched him, he quickly withdrew his hand like she had burnt him. _'Guess he was utterly repulsed, but hey! I can use that to my advantage.'_ Yuffie thought bitterly, before speaking aloud. "Might wanna tell me what's up, Spikes, before dragging me away as if you're trying to kidnap me."

Cloud had appeared dazzled by something, but soon recovered his facade- they were currently standing a little ways into the back parking lot, where the students parked their cars. People were walking around them, and some sending them dirty looks. Cloud ignore them, before speaking quietly and in a hushed whisper.

"Merlin wishes to speak to you."

Yuffie looked understanding, before a large, evil and very sly grin came to her features. Cloud, for the love of him, only had a little bit of an understanding that the look on her face meant one thing.

Trouble.

"OH. CLOUD!" she exclaimed loudly, drawing the attention of various other students. "SO, YOU'RE SAYING THAT YOUR CREEPY OLD BOSS WANTS TO MEET ME IN A DARK HOUSE THAT I'VE NEVER BEEN TO BEFOR-" before she could finish, Cloud had grabbed her by the collar of her shirt once again and used his other hand to cover her mouth. Yuffie thought about biting him, but realized she wouldn't be able to bite through his leather gloves.

Cloud sent her a look, which she understood as _'When I let you go, you're not going to say anything.'_ Yuffie nodded to his silent message- assuming she was correct and doing her best to hide the big grin on her face, luckily hidden underneath his glove. He was stronger then her, yes, but she'd figured out that he wouldn't do anything to her in public- if he didn't want anyone to hear about Merlin, then he sure as hell wouldn't clunk her over the head and drag her away like a caveman.

The warrior released his grip on her, before motioning for her to follow- both feeling the eyes of their fellow peers on them. However, with Cloud's back now turned to her, she allowed a gleefully wicked grin to her come to her face.

"I'm sorry Cloud." she belted out, not as loud- because she knew that her peers were already paying attention to her. Cloud froze like ice, clenching his fists tightly and preparing for the worst. "But of course, I'll be the camera man to you when you're doing the deed with Squ-" Cloud suddenly became livid, before he reached out and grabbed her by the arm. Instantly, he started dragging her behind him- not saying anything, even as Yuffie was grinning a chester cat grin.

Suddenly, they stopped, causing Yuffie to look up. Before them was a motorcycle, which caused her to instantly pale. Not because it was in bad shape- no, it was more impressive then the one she had seen last night, shiny and published to an almost sickening perfect shine. That wasn't why she was whiter then a sheet- Yuffie had a problem with motion sickness. She had long ago gotten used to the city buses, but that had taken years- things like cars, and of course motorcycles, made Yuffie physically ill- just by the thought of them.

Cloud put his helmet on and started his bike, before looking at her- although he was currently adorning a pair of goggles, that made him look like a huge nerd- with his usual blank look. However, Yuffie knew fully well that he was getting _very_ impatient.

When she made no move to get on, he spoke. "Get on."

Yuffie's tone became whiny, but it was surprisingly strong and firm. "No!"

Cloud's eyebrows shot up, but he soon regained his cool posture. "Get. On."

"No!"

"Get on."

"Noooooooo!"

"_Get. _**On**_."_

"_Noooooooooooo!"_

"Do it."

"Make me!" Yuffie stuck out her tongue, making a 'neh' sound- oh sure, it was immature, but she really didn't care.

* * *

However, when Cloud growled and stood up before approaching her, Yuffie instantly regretted her words.

"Hatehatehatehate_you!"_

Cloud and Yuffie were currently heading to the house that they had been at last night- on Cloud's motorcycle, of course. Yuffie had her helmet on rather loosely, and it moved back and fourth on her head- not that it mattered that much, before she was currently gripping onto Cloud for dear life- or as if she was trying to kill him, it was hard to tell at the moment.

"Meany_mean_meanypants!"

Cloud was easily ignoring her- he had it down to an art now- well, he was ignoring her constant talking, he couldn't exactly ignore the fact she was holding onto him, which in turn caused him to become very tense. However, they were almost there- and she had been yelling about this since he put the helmet on her, and despite how most people would get more annoyed the more she did it, Cloud was the opposite- finding it easier to deal with the more she did it. Plus, he kinda liked...

He growled, deciding not to think about things like that now, where it would be a distraction.

Finally coming to where he wanted to be- he slowed the bike down, before pulling into the driveway. Stopping the bike next to the other one, he kicked out the stand before getting off of the bike...

And noticing that Yuffie was currently gripping onto his upper chest, legs pulled up high- using his body to support herself in mid air.

Cloud took off his helmet and goggles, before looking down- she was still gripping onto him. Speaking loud and clear, he expected her to get the point.

"Yuffie."

she didn't respond.

"Off."

When she only gripped on tighter, and let out a string of curses about him being a spike-y haired jerk, he gave up. Instead, he turned- walking to the door and not bothering to knock- he opened the door with one hand. Heading straight to the room on the left, the room with the red chair and couch, he was greeted by the sight of Squall sitting down on the couch rather lazily, at least for him.

Squall raised an eyebrow with a loose smirk on his lips, which caused Cloud to growl lowly- he knew what he was looking at, or rather, who he was looking at. Now suddenly embarrassed, he wrench Yuffie's arms from him, and allowed her to drop to the ground- before walking away from her and returning to the wall, leaning up against it and ignoring Squall's look.

Yuffie landed on her behind, jumping up instantly and sending a glare at Cloud, before looking over to Squall. "Where's this Merlin guy?" she questioned, deciding that she wasn't comfortable enough to rub her throbbing behind- Hey, she had fallen hard!

"Right here, dear." when a voice spoke- Yuffie spun around, resisting the urge to jump up like a scared cat and grip into the ceiling. Instead, she studied the man- he was elderly, with a long, white beard. He looked... Like a Wizard? He had small, almost beady black eyes with glasses over them, and a large blue and pointy hat- besides that, he was wearing long matching robes. "Why, hello! You must be Yuffie, I've heard many a thing about you." his eyes sparkled when he spoke these words, but Yuffie paid this no mind.

"Little late for Halloween, eh, Dumbledore? Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk!" Yuffie chuckled at her own joke, slapping her knee before breathing in and catching her breath.

Squall sent an annoyed look towards Cloud, but the warrior's eyes were closed tightly and he didn't seem to be aware of anything that was currently going on around him.

Merlin raised an eyebrow, before laughing a little bit. "Oh my, you do seem to have a sense of humor! That's excellent. Now, do you know why I wish to speak to you?"

"Nope! Not a clue." _'Dumbledore'_ Yuffie added silently inside of her own mind.

"Well, from what I've been told, you've been running into the heartless quite a bit. That's true, yes?"

"Yes...?"

"Well, splendid! Then you won't mind hunting them, would you?"

* * *

End Chapter Nine.

S.O.H


	10. Chapter X

Durka, Durka! Happy Spongemas Eve! Don'tcha know of Spongemas Eve? Tis a shame. Never the less, Kawaii Eyez gets the first Christmas Gift, which shall be appearing very soon!.. Actually, right after this one, but whom cares?

Happy Spongemas Eve!

* * *

__

Y_ELLOW_**_H.A._Z.E**

**C.H.A.P.T.E.R:**

**X**

_Almost **There.**_

* * *

"Well, seeing as I've already battled them, and apparently because they're 'after me'." Yuffie raised her fingers to do air quotes, as Squall brought his hand up and squeezed the bridge of his nose- it appeared as if he did that whenever he was stressed. "I don't think I mind at all, Dumbledore." she snickered a little bit to herself, but managed to regain her composure... Barely.

"Then, I would be very pleased to offer you a position!"

"Merlin..." Squall trailed off, staring at the elderly man with one eye closed and the other open. "You can't be serious..."

"Oh! But if I wasn't, why would I have said such a thing?! Now, young lady, what do you say, hhhmm?" Merlin prompted, a twinkle in his eyes which gleamed behind his glasses, ignoring Squall's deadly look.

"Sure, you'll need a great Ninja like I! Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!" Yuffie grinned a big grin after she proclaimed her chuckle for all to hear. She really didn't know what she was getting herself into- but why did she care? She never knew what she was getting into, and she usually came out fine... Well, maybe with a few cuts and bruises, but fine none the less. "Just show me where to sign up, and I'm all yours!"

"My my, aren't you filled with a rather infectious energy? Come now, and I'll show you around..." Merlin grinned a grin that was almost as infectious as Yuffie's persona, before motioning a wrinkled hand to follow. Yuffie did so, following the old man out of the room.

When both of them were gone, Squall spared Cloud a look. He was still leaning up against the wall, his eyes closed as it appeared he was concentrating on something, "Well?" Squall drawled, looking at Cloud with a mixture of boredom and annoyance- however that was possible, Squall managed to do it.

Obviously showing Squall more respect then he would other people, he opened one of his amazingly colored eyes and peered at the fellow warrior with one of his blank expressions. When he spoke, however, it was laced with a little bit of anger. "What?" it was barely a question, spoken in such a hot manner.

However, Squall merely gave off an air of cold indifference at his tone. "What's your opinion?"

"I don't care."

Squall smirked lightly as he allowed his eyes to close for a moment, before flicking a piece of brown hair out of his gaze. When they reopened, he spoke. "Whatever."

"Hmmph."

And that's how the conversation ended- Squall wanted answers, but he didn't want to seem like he cared. Both had learned to act as if they were emotionless- although Squall broke through the act every once and awhile, Cloud seemed to play to it by the dot- expect when he was...

Shaking his head, Squall watched as Cloud pushed off of the wall and exited the room, as if the fellow warrior heard his thoughts like spoken words. Squall didn't know where his friend was going, but he knew that the blond haired fighter wouldn't be too far away- this place had now become that much more important to him.

* * *

Merlin brought Yuffie up the stairs and into a large room- that appeared to be a circle shaped one. It was dark with candles lighting it, and bookshelves lining the walls. There wasn't a window in this room, and in the middle of there was a desk. The desk was brown and made out of oak, and atop it was a pile of various colored books and scrolls that looked older then Merlin himself. In fact, the scrolls and books were also scattered amongst the room. As Merlin took a close look at the room, he frowned visibly.

"Dear me, this won't do." Yuffie watched with a raised eyebrow as Merlin took out a long, skinny stick- before waving it in front of him with a mummer of words that Yuffie didn't quite hear. Suddenly, the books and scrolls jumped to life- and Yuffie could only watch with widened eyes as they started to organized themselves. Soon, the room was spotless and clear to perfection. Yuffie couldn't help but gawk with her mouth opened, before Merlin waved his wand in front of him- causing two chairs to appear, one in front of work desk, and an oversized one behind it.

Yuffie was frozen in place as Merlin walked over and jumped down into the oversized one. He raised an eyebrow before chuckling warmly at Yuffie. "Now dear, don't be shy- sit, sit!"

Yuffie nodded, sitting down into the chair and trying to regain her composure... Well, If there were heart stealing monsters and slayers, why not magic? Yuffie was wondering if her sanity had a warranty on it, so she could trade it in for a new one. The ninja shook her head, to shake herself from her thoughts, and listened as Merlin started to talk.

"The first thing you should know about Heartless, is never let them touch you." Merlin's eyes glistened at Yuffie's guilty look, before he continued. "The wounds are dangerous, and if you aren't careful, can leave more then just physical wounds... Such is Leon's scar." Yuffie nodded, gulping down the sudden lump in her throat. "Don't feel bad child, but may I inquire to see your wound?" he was wise, and Yuffie would learn to respect that.

Yuffie raised her hand, to see Merlin's beard twitched and eyebrows shot up. "Why, dear heavens! That will not do at all, no no no.." he mumbled to himself, before standing up in his chair and taking out his wand, muttering some words and tapping her hand. Yuffie hissed as she felt flesh reconnecting and growing, before healing over- when she looked back at her hand, there was barely a mark- which caused Merlin to smile quietly.

Yuffie put her hand back down, as Merlin continued to speak. "I need you to remember that there is more to be wary of then just Heartless. But I digress, we do need your assistance. The heartless attacks are increasing, and you seem to be the perfect one to recruit- for more then one reason, but I cannot reveal these to you just yet."

Yuffie shook her head, before speaking- surprised that she hadn't said anything yet, as her mouth had a habit of running away from her. "You shouldn't have said anything, now you're going to leave me wondering!" she whined, before pouting visibly. Merlin's eyes sparkled with mirth, as he continued and showed no more signs of hearing her, despite the chuckle he gave.

"I've heard of your battles, and I dare say I am impressed that you won them with only the weapons you have. I will make request of Cloud to retrieve you something better-"

"I already have something better! 'Cept... Can't have it till I graduate." Yuffie's shoulders slumped at the fact she couldn't have her oversized shuriken yet. Merlin chuckled, before speaking once again.

"I'm sure you do. However, you need something that is designed to kill heartless. Hmhm.. Now that I think of it, I should be able to conjure something..." Merlin stroked his breed, before grinning. "Yes, that will do! However, young lady, I still think you'll need someone to show you the ropes.. Hmhm, I suppose that can be Cloud's job then..."

"Why Chocobohead?" it just occurred to her that he had the same hair color as said bird. However, she didn't expect Merlin to laugh full heartily, so her reaction was simple- a tilted head to the side, and a confused expression.

"You, young lady, are very witty." he stood up, dusting off his robes before smiling and adjusting his glasses. "However, Cloud is our best warrior. Besides, you two seem to get along nicely. I digress! We shall go find the topic of our discussion now, yes?" Merlin's smile never faltered as he walked towards the door, Yuffie not surprised in the least when the door opened for him. Not wanting it to close on her, she followed hastily- before a thought hit her.

"Howcha know that?" she questioned, before exclaiming loudly. "Ya just met me!"

Merlin turned his head to her, once again his eyes sparkling- however, there seemed to be something new behind them... Something Yuffie would grow not to like in the very least.

"Why, my dear, there are many things I know that I shouldn't."

* * *

Chapter ten, end.

S.O.H


	11. Chapter XI

For some reason, some strange reason, people seem to like this story.

So I've been motivated to update it.

After re-reading it and stuffles, to see if I remember the plot- I do.

My writing style will more likely then not be lacking, considering the long break from writing I have taken.

Btw, they don't have christmas off in this story. Kthzbye.

No spell check nor did I read over it much. Meh.

------

Y_E__**L**__**L**__O__**W **__**H**__A__**Z**_**E**

**C.H.A.P.T.E.R**

**XI**

_**In the Lion's Den.**_

Merlin stood up, his cloak moving across his body like waves as he stared at Yuffie with those youthful eyes. "I am incredibly excited that you've agreed so easily." he spoke, a large smile on his features as he walked towards the door of his office.

Yuffie blinked as if dazed, tilting her head to one side much like a confused dog as a thought suddenly hit her. Had she actually ever said yes? Or had somewhere along the line, they had just introduced her into this in such a manner that she'd 'signed the dotted line' without even noticing?

Whatever, Yuffie wasn't one to care anyway.

"So within the week, I should have all preparations done for you. Until then, try and keep out of trouble." Merlin waved his hand, causing the door to open.

"Hey wait, Mer-man. If you can just wave your hand and open the door, then what's the point of standing up?" Yuffie asked with her hands on her hips, about to exit the room.

Merlin's eyes twinkled as he chuckled heartily. With a wave of his hand, he replied, his other hand resting on his hip. "Why child, what's the point of making your bed if you're just going to ruin it by sleeping in it again?" he paused, before he remembered. "If Cloud is your mentor, then he should probably be assisting you on your way home..."

Yuffie's face paled at the thought of the motorcycle. On one hand, it was friggen cool, but on the other hand, she didn't feel like puking again. "Please, God, no." she begged, hands clasping together as she shook them in front of Merlin's aged face.

"By foot- and get, get! Child, this conversation has gone on a little too long." he winked suddenly, before disappearing in a puff of smoke- giving her no way to reply.

Maneuvering her way through the house, she found herself to the front door and paused when she noted both Cloud and Squall staring at her, as if they'd just had a heavy and intense conversation.

"Woah," she spoke, winking at them. "I must have missed the make out." chuckling to herself, she awaited a response with both of her arms crossed in front of her chest.

And suddenly felt like she was staring into the faces of a pack of hungry wolves, or a pride of lions.

Feeling awkward for one of the first times in awhile, Yuffie started to back away slowly and rather carefully from the two silent teens.

Cloud moved off of the wall he had been leaning on, and for the first time, Yuffie admired the way he moved. It was swift, controlled, kind of like some sort of hunter. Most people walked rough and loud, but despite the combat boots Yuffie heard not one shuffle of his feet.

"Hey man, I can walk myself-" interrupted by Cloud opening the door and standing ominously behind her. "I guess not! In fact, I'm suddenly feeling heavily co-dependant. In fact, it's like by the seconds my independency is reducing by trilllllians!" she practically yelped as she jumped from the doorway to land onto the side walk, watching Cloud like one would watch a hungry wolf.

Cloud took each step with care and grace, as if he was walking in slow motion. There didn't seem to be any struggle in his step- it was so fluid that it stirred something in her.

She felt tense, like he was having some sort of effect on her. He seemed relaxed, but she could definitely tell that he and Squall had gotten into some sort of fight, some sort of disagreement that made him seem like he could snap at any moment.

It was like watching a living, breathing paradox.

Yuffie suddenly snapped out of her daze as she noticed Cloud was standing directly in front of her, staring at her quite openly. She made eye contact. For a moment, there was something there- the same thing that she'd seen when she had been in his bed, something raw and real. Then, his eyebrows narrowed and that part of him was closed off- causing Yuffie to snap her head back and turn swiftly.

She needed to get out of here.

Three days later, Yuffie had herself an almost completely finished project, only a few more days of being grounded, and a sinister suspicion that she was going to get jumped by heartless again.

It hadn't happened in a couple days, and hell, it made her life a little more exciting...

There was only one annoying thing in her life right now.

Yuffie sighed as she got of English class for lunch. Stretching out as the sea of students engulfed her. A swarm of moving bodies that paid her no mind, didn't care who she was.

Yawning loudly, her ear twitched as she over heard a conversation.

"Hey, it'll be a full moon is tomorrow. Do you wanna go looking for that Werechocobo that everyone's been talking about?"

"Like hell, everyone knows that's just a bunch of bs."

As the students passed, Yuffie suddenly brightened up. She'd completely forgotten about that chocobo in all this mess, and suddenly she wanted to get down to the bottom of this mystery.

The way that chocobo fought... It must have been trained... And if someone was training a chocobo to fight those heartless, then maybe someone should look into it.

Nodding but feeling like she was forgetting some sort of detail, she turned only to find her face colliding with leather. She was suddenly hit with a scent she couldn't place. A fine spice. Nutmeg, maybe?

She was pushed back harshly, almost getting whiplash as she stared up to make eye contact with Cloud. He looked awkward, as if he didn't know what he was doing or how to react to him bumping into her.

Cloud had been the thing annoying her this week. He seemed to be everywhere- she felt his eyes on her before she saw him, usually. It was like he felt that something was going to snatch her away any second and it was his responsibility to make sure she didn't get snatched. That was the hopeful side of her, the realistic side of her believed he just wanted to make sure she wasn't telling anyone about heartless or anything to that effect.

The silence was stretching on far too long, thus Yuffie spoke up. "What the hell, Spikes? I didn't even know you existed until like a month ago, and now you appear around every friggen corner like a never-disappearing-hood ornament."

Cloud didn't make a facial expression, but he did move his chin down, hiding his lips behind his trench coat's collar. He tried to speak, but he suddenly seemed meeker then Yuffie had ever seen him. Further more, his eyes were open, and the young ninja could see so much emotion behind there that it startled her.

He brushed past her, shoving his shoulder into her petite form. Grumbling, Yuffie folded her arms over her chest. She then made her way to her locker with a chip on her shoulder.

-----

As night began to fall, Yuffie stuck her head out of her window, feeling the cold breeze ruffling her hair. The air was rather warm for early January and Yuffie closed her eyes as she relaxed visibly. Tonight was the night of the full moon- and she was planning on finding that werechocobo, wherever it was.

As she began climbing out of her window, knowing Cid was completely passed out, her mind began to wonder. She knew she shouldn't be showing concern, but Cloud... He'd been a complete and utter klutz today. Yuffie had seen him three times- once, he fell twice going up the stairs, in a row. The second time, she'd seen him go to open his locker and watched as a mountain of stuff piled out. As it crashed to the floor, his facial expression was blank as he stood motionless for several moments. Then, he'd past her in the hallway and his method of walking was nothing like it usual was. It seemed jerky and quick- usually he'd walk through the sea of students and they would part for him with the ease of a knife going through hot butter. But today, his movements had been all about moving around everyone, like a wary animal.

Whatever, Cloud was none of her concern anyway.

It wasn't like he cared about her or anything.

The streets were empty, Yuffie found that strange. It was also eerily dark, the moon hidden behind a sea of clouds. The lack of light was no concern for Yuffie, though in the back of her mind she knew that it made it easier for heartless to sneak up on her.

She traveled to the park, Ansem Park to be precise. She felt a kind of dread in this pack now- now that she knew who Ansem was, what he stood for. Shaking these feelings off, Yuffie jumped up into a tree, pulling herself up with the ease of an assassin.

Which she was.

She poked her head out from the tangled branches, watching over the horizon as she waited for the sighting of the Werechocobo.

-----

"Yuffie!"

The black haired ninja's eyes snapped open, a shiver overtaking her from sitting still for so long. How long was she out? With the sudden panic one is overwhelmed with when being awoken suddenly; she stared around like a frightened animal.

Her head moved down and her eyes caught sight of Cloud, which for some reason she'd wonder back on in the days to come, filled her with a complete sense of relief. He was staring up at her, his expression pained yet so opened that it caused her to do a double take.

"Cloud-" she was interrupted by a yawn, moving her stiff muscles with a wince. "What're you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question." his words were biting, but his eyes still held that emotion. Why wasn't he closing up? She felt like she was seeing something she shouldn't... She suddenly felt dirty. "I went to your house to pick you up-"

"-Cid is going to kill me-"

"-But no one responded, so I decided to do a patrol." he interrupted coolly, closing his eyes as if he suddenly realized how alive they were. "Merlin wants you to swing by tomorrow. It was going to be tonight, but it's eleven already."

Holy, Cloud was talking a lot.

Cloud turned to take a step, but suddenly tripped over his own feet and fell flat on his own face. Yuffie reacted without thinking, leaping down from the tree and walking towards him with a chuckle.

Part of her was concerned, but mocking him made her feel better. Made her feel like she was in the same class as him. "Are your shoes tied together, Spikes?" she leaned forward and sneered at him.

He got up, slowly, as if he was struggling to maintain himself. But as he soon as he got onto two feet, he staggered to the left like a drunk. Yuffie tilted her head to the side, as Cloud started to pant a bit.

"Hey, Spikes... Are you alright?"

Cloud whipped his head and looked at Yuffie with so much intensity that it almost knocked her off of her feet. So many emotions swirled in those eyes, before they slowly dimmed. Although there was hardly the same amount of emotion in them then before, it was still more then Yuffie was used to. A silence stretched, one that Yuffie broke by both speaking and moving her gaze away from his.

"I'll take that as a no." Yuffie looked up, noticing that the clouds were thinning. The moon was still covered, but it was no where near as cloudy. "Com'on, Chocobo head. Let's get going."

Cloud made a sound Yuffie couldn't quite label, before falling after her with his jerky movements. "Don't ever call me that again." he spoke in his monotone, following on her heels practically.

Suddenly the air got heavy again, and both warriors froze. They knew the signs of what this meant- and they watched as the shadows rippled. Yuffie looked over her shoulder to Cloud, who she noticed for the first time was weaponless.

Did he actually come out expecting not to be attacked?

He grabbed her arm suddenly, causing Yuffie to squawk. "We have to go." his mouth and Yuffie knew this was completely unintentional, was right by her ear, causing her to pull her head away.

"Pfft, just because you're weaponless doesn't make you useless." Yuffie pulled her arm away, although nervous she wasn't about to back away from a fight, especially since her mysterious Werechocobo hadn't shown up. "Although you're moving like your drunk, too. But hell, you'll make a wonderful distraction!"

Cloud sent her a look of malice as twelve creatures of darkness ripped themselves into their world. It was twelve of those original heartless that Yuffie had first seen. "Eh, Spikes. What are these things, anyway?"

Cloud moved closer to her, making her feel small in his wake although he wasn't as impressive as usual. "Heartless." he spoke in complete and utter deadpan.

Wondering briefly if Cloud was trying to joke with her or not, she pulled out four shuriken from her sleeve. "I mean, did you name these heartless? Since there seems to be-" Yuffie moved to the side as one of the chubby heartless attacked, throwing three shuriken at it and watching it explode into a wisp of darkness.

"Shadows." Cloud backed away, his back against the tree as he watched four of the eleven shadows left approach him. His yellow eyebrows narrowed, as sweat dripped down from his brow... He was so weak, so tired...

"What the crap is wrong with you, Spikes?" Yuffie yelled over her shoulder as another 'Shadow' came at her. She dodged, delivering a downward kick that smashed it into the ground. She then stomped it with her heel, satisfied with it's demise. "Where is your game face? Your acting like a little girl that needs saving!" Yuffie pulled out eight shurikens from her shirt, throwing them at the shadows that were about to maul Cloud's face off.

Three out of the four exploded, leaving six left. Cloud moved forward as the remaining shadow out of the four that had cornered him charged, causing him to side step clumsily and elbow it across the back of it's skull. With a pant, the shadow exploded as he leaned his weight against the tree.

Yuffie pulled out two kunai as the final five surrounded her. A smirk came to her features as her grey eyes were hidden by her bangs. As they all leapt towards her, she spun away to the left, slicing through two of the remaining shadows.

Her heart was beating heavily in her chest; her breathing labored as she turned again and threw the kunai that she had been using as a blade. It stabbed into another one of the shadows, causing it to look at her. With a smirk of a well trained warrior she ran forward and kicked her foot in, driving the kunai deeper into the shadow's skull and causing it to explode.

"Aw, you play way too nice." Yuffie whined, tilting her head to the side. "I didn't even need any help to finish you." with that said, she dived forward and at the last moment flicked her rest, a kunai in each hand as she tore through them.

Standing up and turning around, she looked at Cloud hoping to gloat. Instead, his head was turned the other way. His eyes were half lidded, yet they seemed to look intensely behind the horizon. Sighing and pushing off of the tree, he looked to Yuffie as he began walking like a drunk out of the park.

Yuffie shrugged it off, walking behind the weakened warrior. "So, what do you think?" Yuffie asked, feeling smug. When she got no reply from the silent warrior, she took a couple quick steps forward until she was walking next to him. "I mean, you couldn't even do that in the state you're in."

They were walking past buildings now, out of the pack and guided by the false sense of safely that the street lights offered. Despite this, Cloud still left her without a reply- all she heard were his haggard breaths. "Are you sick?" she questioned, stepping in front of him and forcing him to stop. However, he kept his gaze to the ground as if referring to look at her.

Leaning forward, she reached out and placed her hand on his forehead. For a moment she felt the red hot flesh before in a movement that was quicker then her eye could see, Cloud reached around and grabbed her arm before his body slammed up against hers and pinned her to the nearby brick wall of a building. He leaned his head against the cool brick, his face by hers. His left hand pinned both of her arms above her head as he used his right arm to stabilize himself.

Suddenly she felt hot.

"Let's get this straight," he whispered huskily. Yuffie could feel his grip becoming loose and in this state she could definitely push past him- but why didn't she? "You don't touch me. Your skin does not make contact with mine. Do. You. Under. Stand?" his lips were right by her ear- for someone that didn't want her to be touching him, he was currently invading her personal space without regret.

Despite how weird of a thing that was to say, Yuffie nodded her head slowly. Cloud dropped his arms slowly, yet he made no movement to step away from her. His breath tickled her neck, yet she was too overwhelmed to move.

It felt like eons before she said anything.

"Uh, C-C-Cloud?" she questioned meekly, moving to pull away as she felt his dead weight against her. Looking up, she scowled as she pushed him off of her.

The little prick had passed out.

-----

It was memory that guided Yuffie to Cloud's house that night; it was her ninja skills that allowed her to pick the lock before dropping him on his front carpet before leaving.

It was luck that Yuffie got home before her Godfather woke up; it was her ninja skills that allowed her to sneak in undetected.

It was annoying that she had to wake up the next morning; it was excellent that it was a Saturday.

It was her ability at lying through her teeth that allowed her to get out of the house to go to Merlin's. It, however, was extremely awkward to have the door opened in front of her and the first thing to fall upon her line of vision to be a certain spiky haired warrior.

"Er, hey..." Yuffie trailed off and squeezed past Cloud, before turning to him and rubbing the back of her head. "How'd you sleep?"

Cloud sent her a look that instantly shut her up, walking past her as elegantly as ever- no sign of his sickness from yesterday. Stepping into the living room, she saw Squall reading the newspaper with his usual serious expression.

"Heya, Squalll!" Yuffie yelped quite cheerfully, pulling down the newspaper as she leaned forward.

Squall gave her a look of utter distain. "Le-"

"Yeah, whatever." she leaned back up, ignoring Cloud lurking in the shadows as she spoke. "Where's the Mer-man?"

"Right here!" Yuffie yelped and jumped backwards as Merlin appeared right next to her, her small little heart beating a marathon in her chest. Merlin took a sniff, before frowning visibly. "You smell like you've encountered Heartless lately." he studied her carefully, moving his glasses to get a better look at her. "But you look like you came out extraordinarily well." Merlin clapped his hands together, heading towards the far wall. "This excites me. Greatly. Now, Com'on you three."

Cloud stepped out of his place of lurking while Squall raised an thin, brown eyebrow. "You didn't hear me wrong, boy," Merlin continued, tapping the wall with his knuckles as a door appeared. "You'll be coming along for the ride, too."

Squall then too stood up, looking sour as the four of them traveling through the door- finding themselves in a training gym area, with a large sparring area in the center. Merlin clapped his hands together. "Excellent, now Yuffie, some more extensive training will begin." Merlin cast a glance, to a still scowling Squall.

"Well, Leon. If you don't want to be here so much, we'd best put you to use. You'll be training Yuffie." he pointed to Squall, whose eyebrows narrowed deeply before he walked past them all and into the center of the sparing area.

"I didn't think I'd be doing any work today, Merlin. Thus I do not have my-" he was interrupted by a poof of smoke, and when that smoke cleared in his hands he held his gun blade. Seeing this, Yuffie skipped forward into the sparing area and held her hands out expectantly.

"Begin." Merlin watched as both warriors hesitated, before Yuffie yelled out. "Hey! Why don't you do the poof-y-poof thing for me, too?"

"That is not the point of this exercise! Now, Leon, train against her like you would fight any heartless." Merlin's eyes lacked their usual mirth. For once, he seemed to be completely and utterly serious.

Cloud sent Merlin a side glance as he folded his arms over his chest before diverting his cool gaze to the sparing area as Squall ran foreword. Why was Merlin doing this? Squall was too good to go against weaponless, even more so when Squall himself had a weapon...

Yuffie jumped rolled to the side as Squall's gunblade missed her by an inch. As soon as she was on her feet, she was dodging a fury of slices that she knew could hit her easily if Squall wasn't holding back. She'd made a mistake- she had come here assuming that Merlin would have given her a weapon before anything like this- but, as she almost got cut by the razor sharp edge of Squall's gunblade, she was beginning to realize how much of a stupid mistake that had been.

But she still had some tricks up her sleeves.

Twitching her wrist, a ball object came into her hand and as Squall was about to slash at her again she threw it against the ground, causing smoke to well up around them.

Cloud covered his face with the inside of his arm and turned away as Merlin stood unmoving. Two grunts were heard and as the smoke cleared, Yuffie had used the two to clear a distance between her and Squall.

"Squall, you are holding back. That is exactly the opposite of what I requested!" Merlin shook his head, a frown on his features as Cloud sent him a side glance once again.

Squall sent Merlin a glance as he gripped his gun blade tighter. What could Merlin be getting at? He disliked Yuffie, but he had no inten- his eyes widened with realization as he made eye contact with Merlin.

At that moment, he knew the reason behind this.

Squall charged foreword as Yuffie flicked her wrist, causing two kunai to fall out of her sleeve. She threw one to her left and then threw one where he was going to be- her prediction was right; as he moved to the far left to dodge he was stabbed in the upper arm with her kunai.

He slowed to a skid then pulled the kunai out with a grunt, blood rushing to the surface that he ignored. He charged forward again, causing Yuffie to dodge to the left.

"Fire!" The shout caught Yuffie off guard as she ran directly into a ball of fire that smashed into her upper shoulder. She managed to get away before her caught any of her hair, but the side of her arm was burnt bad and made her grit her teeth.

Cloud's eyes widened as he moved forward a bit, only to hear Merlin's voice. "Do not interrupt this, Cloud." as Yuffie barely ducked a slice towards her throat, she found herself very unlucky to get the blunt end of Squall's gunblade against her jaw.

Cloud's hands clenched into fists as Merlin began talking. "If you cannot watch this, Cloud, then everything you worked for will end."

Yuffie spat out blood as Squall charged forward. The ninja pulled out another kunai and attempted to stab him, only for him to raise his arm against her forearm and block it.

"If she is to join this organization, she will be taken beyond pain that Squall could ever put her through."

Yuffie let out a cry as she kicked her foot into his knee, giving her arm time as a surprised Squall looked up. Eight shurikens and a kunai came flying towards him. Like lightening he moved, throwing up a guard by blocking the onslaught of metal with his gunblade. The sound of metal hitting metal rung out, as two of the shurikens nuzzled themselves into his shoulder.

"And if you risk your life trying to save her..."

Yuffie landed with her back turned to foe, feeling the pressure as she turned quickly to find a charging Squall behind her. She threw three more kunai that Squall blocked with his Gunblade, reflecting them to the sides as he swung across. Yuffie dodged barely, and was sliced across the arm as she wasn't so lucky. Kicking Squall's knee, she managed to cause him to stagger back as she reached into her sleeve.

"You will lose not only your life, but hers as well."

She was all out of metal to throw.

Throwing a punch that was blocked by Squall, she received one across the jaw that sent her flying back. She skidded across the ground, her sneakers digging in to the hard wood floor as she panted heavily, collapsing onto one knee.

"Enough! Good show, good show!" Merlin clapped his hands together; speaking under his breath so only Cloud could hear. "I will let you decide what you will make of this lesson, but you inability to act will only make you both suffer more."

Merlin stepped forward as Squall wiped his brow, "So, Yuffie, do you understand what you maybe up against? Just because it's been all Shadows and Knights until now, doesn't mean there aren't more powerful heartless out there."

Yuffie spat out blood again, her eyes for once intense with the after-battle rage. "Next time, give me a weapon and maybe I'll show you something you haven't seen before."

Merlin chuckled heartily, the mirth returning to his eyes. "And that next time will be in about five minutes. Cure!" a warm light swallowed Yuffie, as if all the weight on her shoulders was gone.

Standing up, Yuffie felt completely fine. That's when it hit her. "Oy, Squally, how were you able to throw that fireball? I've never seen anything like it, except from, well, Merlin..."

Merlin chuckled once more. "They'll explain it to you as your training continues. Cloud, Squall, I'll leave her training to the two of you. Tootles!" in a puff of smoke, the wizard disappeared- in his wake, an incredibly awkward silence.

Yuffie looked from Squall to Cloud and once again felt small and puny. Cloud looked completely dead, but she felt like there was so much going on under the surface. Squall, on the other hand, who was currently leaning on his gunblade, seemed smug about something. Squall and Cloud then shared a look, before looking away to stare at Yuffie.

Yuffie suddenly felt like a sheep in the lion's den.

----------

More then likely to have mistakes. Didn't spell check. Don't have use for a beta. Well, that's a lie. Don't deserve a beta with my lack of updates. Will probably come back and fix this.

If anyone made a request that you don't think I replied to because of my not being here- re make it and I'll more then likely not do it, but my heart will be there and if I am really back, I will.

Previews of next chapter;

"_I wonder what it's like to die like that…"_

_"You're just a child. Don't even try to correct me." _

"_You'll have to make a decision. This world or the other one. But I warn you, you cannot leave this world intact, and if you do you will be leaving something behind you may never get back." _


	12. Chapter XII

Sponge: I am finishing this story no matter what.  
Expect a lot of updates from now on. (which is crazy considering I have somewhere to be every friggen day of the week but whatever.)  
Thanks to my new beta reader, always-kh.

So I'mm make like a sponge and soak up the bullshit.

C_H__**A**__**P**__**T**__ER __X__**I**_

_**Getting to know you, part I.**_

With the awkward silence filling the room, Yuffie tried to think of something to say. But as soon as she went to open her mouth, any sounds that could come out were stopped by Cloud and Squall sharing a look. It was odd- but over the past couple of days she seemed to be becoming more in tuned to them.

Narrowing her eyes deeply, she waved her hand as she leaned forward on the balls of her feet, heels in the air. "Hey!"

Both males turned to look at her.

The spot light should always be on her, anyway.

"Could you guys explain this whole shooting fireball thing?" Yuffie tilted her head to the side with what she believed to be an adorable grin.

Squall sent a look towards Cloud, who in response turned away and walked towards the nearby wall. Narrowing his eyes in reply, Squall turned towards Yuffie and sighed, holstering his gunblade as he grabbed the bridge of his nose.

Yuffie found it weird that he carried his holster when he didn't even bring his gunblade with him in the first place.

"Magic is a very hard thing to explain. It's energy. There are two kinds of magic. The first one is the one you saw me use."

"Teach me!" Yuffie folded her arms over her chest, sticking her hip out with a child-grin. "It's an unfair advantage you have over me."

"I can't teach it." Squall shrugged dismissively, causing Yuffie to pout in response as her body tensed up in protest.

"That's not fair! Just because you-"

"It's not because he doesn't like you." Cloud spoke from across the room. Yuffie's face went blank as she stared at him. Somehow, from across the room, he seemed to grab her attention in a way he couldn't do before.

When did this happen? Yuffie didn't like this at all.

"Magic is tricky. Merlin will teach you when he feels fit." Closing his eyes again, he closed that part of the conversation in the way only Cloud could.

"Thanks for that..." Squall grumbled, rolling his eyes skyward before he looked back towards Yuffie, folding his arms across his chest. "The other kind of magic is the kind of magic Merlin can use. While I can heal, create fire and a couple other elements, Merlin can actually create and bend matter."

Yuffie was about to speak when she felt a sudden weight in her hands before a puff of smoke covered her hands. A sudden weight filled her hands and she gripped onto warm, comforting metal. Coughing as the smoke dissipated, Yuffie stared down at what appeared there.

A metal, golden circle that made Yuffie's eyebrows shoot up. She recognized the design of this weapon- she had seen more skilled ninjas then her use it. It was called a 'rising sun', if she was correct. Grinning widely, although confused at its sudden appearance, she couldn't hide her pleasure.

Squall sent a side glance at the digital clock at the wall, a slight smirk on his features. 'Five minutes, exactly. You haven't lost your touch at all old man.' turning towards Yuffie, his smirk fell flat as he continued. "Magic uses up a bit of your life force. That's about it."

"Yep, thanks, Squall."

"Le-"

"Leanne?"

"Le-"

"Lee-lee?"

"...." Squall took off his leather jacket, being careful not to ruffle the fur on it. Walking across the room to lay it on the nearby bench, he felt both Cloud's and Yuffie's eyes on him as he placed it down gently. He then pulled off his white undershirt, revealing a heavily toned and muscular upper body covered with scars. Turning to Yuffie and now knowing that she had a better weapon, he didn't trust her not to ruin his jacket.

He loved that jacket more than most people.

Yuffie stared blankly at Squall's chest, openly admiring Squall's fit body. Shaking her head and closing her jaws, she wiped her mouth too in case of drool. Yep, drool. Just a bit. "Jeeze, Squall." she twirled her weapon between her fingers, surprised at how she still was able to do it quickly despite not using one of these kinds of weapons in a long time. "I didn't know you had such a hot bod. Where've you been hiding that thing? Back of the closet next to the church clothes?"

Cloud narrowed his eyes deeply from across the room.

Squall sent Yuffie a glare that was most likely responsible for global warming before pulling out his gunblade. He needed, needed to make her shut up. Her voice made his brain feel like it was being smashed against cold pavement.

Maybe if he beat her again, he could earn some respect points which might translate into her shutting her mouth.

"That look of hatred, Squally, doesn't distract me from your hotness." mostly now, she was over his attractiveness- but she loved the fact she could make him have some emotional response. He tried to look cool, but she could see the rage and embarrassment hidden behind his facade.

She spared a glance across the room and noticed the look of something or other, Yuffie suspected malice that Cloud was sending her way. But for some reason, he looked almost… Envious? Was he jealous over the fact that Squall was attractive? Yuffie wondered if Cloud had a little bit of a manhood problem.

It would explain the giant sword.

Giggling, Yuffie waved her hand in Cloud's direction teasingly as she spoke to Cloud, ignoring Squall for the moment. "Oh sorry, I wasn't aware of you two dating. Don't worry, Spikes, I won't steal-"

Cloud's eyes widened as Squall leapt forward, drawing his gunblade forth as his muscles moved fluidly. Yuffie moved back just in time, before blocking another hit with her Rising Sun and moving to the side. Squall growled, swinging downwards before jabbing forwards with his weapon of choice.

Yuffie smirked before rolling to one side, effectively dodging both moves. Her weapon made her fight better now- she had the confidence to take more risks, knowing that she had something to fall back on. Jumping up, she barely managed to dodge a sweeping strike from Squall. Using her Rising Sun to block another hit, she kicked her foot into Squall's foot, propelling her backwards.

She landed on the nearby shelf; metal it held a collector's horde of weights. Balancing on one foot, Yuffie now had a height advantage of eight feet.

Squall narrowed his eyes, resting his gunblade on his pale shoulder before speaking. "You need to pay better attention."

Yuffie kicked her foot against the back of the shelf repeatedly, as if nervous. "Oh really? Even if I'm staring at your boyfriend from across the room-" she paused, feeling extremely cocky. "Heya Spikes, how's it going?" she questioned, interrupting herself to wink at the blond, who looked away in response. "You still can't touch me. I thought you were some kind of warrior? You might want to step up your game."

"You're just a child. Don't even try to correct me." Squall hissed between his teeth, eyes narrowed deeply as he stepped in front of the shelf, glaring up at Yuffie. "I'm not trying to hurt you; I'm trying to shut you up."

"Don't like noise, eh?" Yuffie dragged her feet forward. "That's too bad! 'Cause things are about to get loud! Nyuck nyuck nyuck!" Yuffie giggled as she stuck out her tongue, waving her finger back and forth as she did.

Squall made a move to step forward, but suddenly found a black ball at his feet. He narrowed his eyes as smoke exploded in his face, causing him to hide his face in his fore arm as he staggered back a bit, coughing heavily.

A loud bang sounded off in front of him as the sound of metal breaking and falling apart reached his ears. His brain didn't have time to figure out what was happening until several weights slammed into Squall's upper body, causing him to bring up his gun blade and attempt to block the rest of the falling weights as he staggered backwards.

He hissed in pain as a weight fell against the top part of his foot, but managed to stagger out of the smoke only to turn around to come face-to-face with a smiling Ninja.

"I don't enjoy being treated like a child. I'm just as much of a warrior as you are, too." Yuffie stuck her tongue out, hands on her hips before she leaned forward to make eye contact with Squall.

He stared at her for a moment.

And then Yuffie's skull made contact with the handle of Squall's gunblade.

----

Yuffie awoke to find out that once again, the light around her was way too bright. She groaned, covering her eyes as she rolled onto her side.

Or tried too.

She found herself constrained in some matter. As she tried to sit up, she felt resistance. She felt herself be picked up and sat down on something hard, which she assumed, was a bench or chair.

Deciding not to stick to guessing games, Yuffie opened her eyes warily to see herself sitting next to a blurry, but silent Cloud.

For some reason, she wasn't surprised.

Scanning the room, she felt both stupid and relieved that Squall was gone.

"You're too cocky." Cloud advised, looking at her with those eyes that seemed unreal.

Yuffie made eye contact and suddenly felt... Something she didn't like in the least. Turning her head away, she missed Cloud's almost shocked reaction before she spoke. "He had it coming! I'm a great Ninja, not some stupid brat!"

"Some would disagree." Cloud retorted quietly, a smirk on his features. "Some would also say you got what you had coming, too."

Yuffie snapped her head to look at him, standing up as she poked him directly in the forehead. "Well, excuse me! If you guys don't want me then you'd might as well kick me out on the side of the stre-"

Cloud grabbed her hand and pulled her back down, making sure to move over a bit to make distance between them. He stared deeply for a moment, Yuffie glaed darkly. "Then you do it again! You can't just silence me by bully-"

"You don't understand!" Yuffie was silenced by Cloud grabbed her chin gently but firmly. "You think this is game, don't you? Well it's not. People get hurt, people die and lives are risked just to clean up a mess that shouldn't be here in the first place!"

"Wer allr dhie somefday." Yuffie attempted to retort though her closed jaw, causing Cloud to narrow his eyes deeply. It was his own fault, he should have known just grabbing Yuffie wouldn't shut her up.

"But you'll die a lot sooner then you need to if you treat this like some backyard-play-ground-bullshit." Yuffie could feel his anger. She felt something else and suddenly she felt a connection that made her face turn red. He was messing her up completely- she should have just walked away from this. "And Death's only if you're lucky. Becoming a heartless is more likely and much worse."

She felt bad.

He was making her feel guilty.

No one, not even her Father or Cid, could do that.

Yuffie instantly shut up, allowing Cloud to relax. Tension dropped and so did his hand from her face. He moved his hands to his lap before he folded his arms, becoming quiet.

"I wonder what it's like to die like that..." Yuffie trailed off, speaking out her thoughts for Cloud to hear. "Becoming a heartless."

"It's not a death." Cloud replied, his eyes becoming hallow before he closed them. "Death is bliss in comparison."

Silence again, one that Yuffie refused to let live. "Where'd Squally disappear off to?"

Cloud was silent for a few moments, before he replied. "I'll be training you from now on, don't worry about him."

Yuffie sighed heavily as she felt like Cloud had avoided one of her questions again. She threw her arms back, leaning backwards as she kicked her feet out, palms making contact with the bench itself. Black leather felt nice against her hands.

'Maybe that's why I like being around-' Yuffie's eyes widened for a moment. Glad she stopped that thought in its tracks (and deciding she needed to decrease the time she spent with Cloud) she spoke, trying to ignore Cloud's leather clad body.

"That's a shame," Yuffie threw her head back, allowing gray eyes to admire the magic-crafted ceiling. "He really has a nice body." Talking about Squall made it easier to ignore the man sitting next to her.

Cloud remained silent.

Yuffie sent Cloud a look. "Just because you're a guy doesn't mean you can't admire too, Spikes. Doesn't mean I'll question your undoubted sexuality."

Cloud remained silent.

"If you took off your clothes too, Spikes, you'd probably get some girls checking you out, too."

Cloud sent her a side glance, before looking the other way. Although he appeared uncomfortable, he made no effect to move just yet, as if part him liked what he was hearing.

All guys, no matter the personality, wanted to know they were attractive.

"Haven't you seen those girls checking you out, Spikes? I mean, you don't got much in the personality department, but I wouldn't say you're hideous."

Cloud did his best to remain silent.

"Actually, you're probably one of the better looking people in the school. I'd fu-"

"We're stopping this conversation, now." suddenly red faced, Cloud stood up so quickly that his trench coat fluttered.

Yuffie grinned from ear to ear, glad to see a reaction out of him. With his back turned, he didn't get a chance to see her true emotions. Using this to her advantage, she spoke with a faked tone of hurt in her voice. "Well, I'm sorry if it bothers you that I find you attractive."

Cloud tensed visibly, seeing a victory Yuffie seized it. "Fine. See if I care if you reject me-"

Cloud turned around, staring at Yuffie so deeply that she felt put off guard. She staggered back, causing Cloud's eyebrows to narrow as those bluish green eyes picked apart her joke.

"I was joking, Spikes." Yuffie held her hands up in her defense, feeling suddenly nervous. Those eyes were intense.

Cloud sighed heavily as his shoulders dropped, causing him to turn away and begin walking out of the room. "I expect you to be able to train every day." Cloud spoke over his shoulder, leaving the room as the door slammed behind him.

Yuffie pouted, folding her arms over her chest. "Everyone just leaves. Nah! I don't need 'em anyway." she closed her eyes, shaking her head and once again feeling a Cloud-related guilt that made her feel like mini kunai were bouncing around in her stomach. She opened her eyes, only to yelp in fright to see at a smiling Merlin in front of her, the wizard stroking his long white facial hair.

"You need a friggen bell attached to you!" Yuffie yelled aloud, standing on one foot as she pulled her body in close from her surprise. Relaxing visibly, she came down into a much more normal stance.

"So now that you've had a taste of what may be in store when it comes to your continued commitment, I believe we, young lady, need to chitter-chat."

=------

Cloud stepped into the living room to see an angry looking Squall, who was beginning to gain a number of different bruises from the weights that had fallen on him. Deciding to avoid another fight, he made a move to turn out of the den only to be stopped by Squall's voice.

"Don't you just turn your back on me." when Cloud continued doing just that, Squall continued. "You can't keep doing this, Cloud."

Cloud remained silent.

Squall, now angry, stood up. "You act like you're some sort of guardian angel when really you don't even like her." Cloud whipped around, mako eyes blazing as he stared at the younger male. "You're just making up for what happened befo-"

"Don't try to pick me apart and figure out my motives, Leon." Cloud folded his arms over his chest, looking to the side and then looking back to stare at the brown haired warrior. "You have no idea what I'm feeling."

"Probably like shit." Squall replied, shaking his head as he squeezed the bridge of his nose with one hand. "You can't fix the past-"

"Don't you think I know that?" Cloud snapped in response, shoulders up high before they fell back down as he struggled to keep himself cool and collected. Cloud took a deep breath as a silence surrounded them for a moment.

Squall cut the silence in half viciously. "You might know it but you're not living it! By trying to fix what happened that day you're only endangering her. If you care about her so much then throw aside your feelings and get her out of this before you get her killed." Squall may not have approved of her, but he didn't exactly want to see someone else die.

"It's not like that. She got herself involved-"

"You're obsessed and lying about this makes it easier, Strife-"

"I'm not obsessed. Squall." Cloud spoke firmly, narrowing his eyes. "You say it all the time like spewing your opinion will make it fact."

"I say it all the time because it's true." Squall hadn't said so much in awhile. Fighting with Cloud always brought the worst out of the two of them. "And if you could get it through your thick skull, maybe you'd realize that your obsession with a flat little girl is based off of something that happened in the past. She's not her, Strife. If you actually cared about her, you'd let her go and respect her enough to not put your ideal onto her."

-----

"It's a lot to take in, trust me, I know. When I was your age-"

"When was that, before the last ice age?" Yuffie interrupted teasingly, causing Merlin to chuckle. Yuffie liked Merlin- nothing seemed to faze him. Normally she liked to get a rise out of people, but sometimes she just wanted someone or something to joke with who wouldn't get offended. "I get it. Part of me does want to go back to what I had. But then I remember I didn't have much excitement before."

"Don't make your choice based on a joy ride, young lady." Merlin started walking to the door and as if under a spell, Yuffie followed. "Nonetheless, you'll have to make a decision." Merlin waved his hand, creating a door. "This world or the other one. But I warn you, you cannot leave this world intact, and if you do you will be leaving something behind you may never get back."

Yuffie blinked, under sure of what he meant. She didn't get a chance to ask however, as in a puff of smoke Merlin made her rising sun appear in her hand and then nudged her through the now open door.

She staggered forward, expecting to find herself in the living room of Merlin's house, but instead found herself on her front porch. Did he think she was incapable of walking?

Whatever, beggars couldn't be choosers.

Sneaking into her house and up the stairs, she hid her newly acquired weapon with the rest of her stash and fell back on her bed, feeling light.

Merlin's words echoed through her head and although they were deeper than her usual brew of tea, she seemed to get them.

If she stopped fighting heartless, she would still know they were there. That knowledge would drive her crazy, knowing that there was a monster she was letting roaming loose in the city.

They needed an expert ninja, anyway.

-------


	13. Chapter XIII

Thanks again for any reviews and reads I'm getting. I'm hoping you're all enjoying this story.  
The next two chapters won't have as much plot and definitely this chapter doesn't even have a fight scene- so basically less fighting. Hell, the little fight scene in the next chapter isn't even a fight scene.

Basically it's just character development on Yuffie's side, the tiniest bit of Cloud and uh, new characters. (I guess?) The plots gonna really pick up soon, so just wait and hold onto your seat belts!

'Cause your seats are gonna go out the window!

Thanks again to my beta reader, always-kh.

* * *

_**C.H.**__**A.**__P.__T._E.**R **_**X**__**III**_

_**Getting to know you, part II. **_

_**

* * *

  
**_

Yuffie never thought learning how to hit things hard could be so...

Boring, disheartening, obsessive, and just generally stupid.

Stretching out and yawning loudly, she stepped out of her house, ignoring Cid's angry morning rumbling as she moved her tongue over her teeth to clean away the taste of toothpaste. Shifting her messenger bag to one side, she hobbled down the steps with a bit of a sloppier step then usually.

When Cloud said he wanted her to train every day, he meant every single day.

At first she eagerly sought him out. It was exciting. She was learning new techniques and fighting skills. It brought her back to when she was still training at her father's dojo, before she had to move to this god awful city. Back to when she had been learning important things like disappearing, being stealthy and all of the things that she knew would help her obtain the freedom she so craved.

But soon this became a feeling of dread. Cloud would train her harsh and rough for three hours and afterwards she felt like she herself was a heartless and Cloud was just pounding her around for the fun of it.

Then it turned to complete dislike and fear.

Training with Cloud was weird- he was awkward as hell, didn't talk, and Yuffie realized every once and awhile he said really weird things. For example, as they were leaving school the other day he had said; "Let's mosey."

What does that even mean?

Deciding from the soreness of her muscles that she would be definitely getting her ass kicked today too, she moved across the sidewalk with slumped shoulders, the shoulders of someone who had given up.

The air was thick and heavy today and in the back of her mind, Yuffie was pretty sure it was going to snow.

"Get back here!"

The shout grabbed her attention and making her look over, her gaze caught sight of a boy running the opposite way of her school. He looked familiar to her, like someone she'd seen in the hallways. The blond hair and black skull cap. The silver, leather jacket did too. Her keen, ninja eyes noted the blood and bruises littering the kid's face. There was also a five kids chasing after him, all wearing her school's jackets.

But that kid.

His name was like Surfer or something, wasn't it?

"Not my problem." Yuffie shrugged effortlessly, ignoring the guilt that was swelling up in her chest. Did any one help her when she got beat up? Did anyone come to her rescue? No. So why should she help anyone else?

Plus, she'd be late.

"We're going to knock you out for that you little shit!" Yuffie turned her head and watched them turn a corner. Yuffie clenched her fists subconsciously.

She sighed knowing that she wouldn't be a great Ninja if she let thos go down.

Blood dripped from his cracked lips as he panted heavily, exhausted. His fists clenched as they closed in on him and he felt like a cornered animal. His blond hair was mattered to his face from his sweat and he knew deep down he looked like shit.

Still, didn't have anything on him.

"You should have thought twic-"

"Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck!" the group of boys paused as a sinister laughter echoed through the back alley. "Do you little children think you can cause trouble in my territory?" the voice was deep, but Seifer's keen ears could catch the fact it was someone faking.

"What're you going on about?" the leader, whose hair was brown and greasy, spoke. With a hideous face, made even worse by a sneer he began to get closer to the cornered youth.

"WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO KNOW?" suddenly a rainfall of kunai fell to the ground, causing the group, minus Seifer, to yelp and shout.

"What the fuck? Who actually carries this kinda Ninja shit?"

"A Ninja, obviously!" the voice came again, echoing loudly.

"Let's get out of here!"

The boys shuffled out of the back alley like bats out of hell, their sneakers squeaking as Seifer watched them retreat. Despite his ego, even he'd admit that he felt a rush of relief. Leaning against the wall and slowly falling down into a sitting position, he allowed his body to relax.

"Who said I wasn't going to beat you up too?" Seifer tensed up, staring up with those hard eyes. Well, a one on one fight would be a lot easier...

He was instantly disappointed when it was that weird girl from his school. She was a grade above him and someone that he would never normally associate with.

Great, he'd just been saved by a girl.

Lame.

"I didn't need you to do that." Seifer wiped off blood from his mouth, standing up and staggering a bit. "They were just a bunch of lamers."

"Whatevvvvver!" Yuffie motioned for him to follow her and for some odd reason he did. "We've gotta get to school."

Despite Seifer being a hard ass, he wasn't one to skip school.

Well, anymore, he was tired of failing courses.

* * *

Yuffie ignored the stares she got entering the school as the late bell for first period rang, a no longer bleeding, but still bloody, Seifer trailing behind her.

Looking behind her, Yuffie commented to herself. 'Surfer doesn't look like he's that used to being looked at. Hmhm.' they had actually had an entertaining conversation on the way there.

However, today was different, because today she had her finished project in her messenger bag. Thus, when she entered sociology with her head held up high and a grin on her features, she didn't even pause to acknowledge the stares she was getting.

Normally she'd do that in the class setting.

However, she had to raise her eyebrow when, a few moments later, that Surfer or-what-ever-his-name-was kid joined the class. She knew this was an open class, but she just couldn't believe that she never noticed him before. Was she blind? Or did she just hate school that much?

First she didn't know that Cloud was from her school, now she didn't even know (until today) that Surfer wasn't in her class.

The teacher sent a mild glare towards both of them before speaking. "Yuffie, Seifer- so nice of you to join us this evening."

"Wait, wait, wait." Yuffie turned towards Seifer, narrowing her eyebrow. "All this time your name was Seifer?" a stunned silence suffocated the classroom as the question hung in the air. Only Yuffie was unaffected.

Although he had been about to scold them on being late, those words were now gone from his mind and thus he had no choice but to move on. "Let's begin, class..." he spoke, after clearing his voice. "Let's move onto chapter five."

"Guess what?" Yuffie bounced up to the teacher's after class, practically vibrating from relief.

"What?" the teacher replied with a raised eyebrow, adjusting his reading classes. "Enlighten me."

"Guess what?!" Yuffie yelled even louder, causing the teacher to cover his ears in pain. "I'm done!"

With that said, Yuffie opened her messenger bag to let loose a stampede of paper. It fluttered from her bag like a waterfall, crashing against the desk and sending spare papers up into the teacher's face. The rest of the papers flew off of the desk itself.

Shaking the bag some more as spare papers fluttered out, Yuffie grinned and waved. "'Cause you told me to be unique and original with my presentationnnnn~!" she gleefully yelled as she went to walk out of the door, closing it behind her.

She turned sharply, a big smile on her face as she crashed into someone. Opening her mouth and about to yell at Cloud, she looked down and released it was Seifer, not Cloud.

This was becoming a nice change of pace.

"What's up, kid?" Yuffie grinned wiggling her eyebrows.

"You do realize I'm the same age as you?" Seifer grumbled, although the fact he was currently looking up at her didn't make things better. "Listen-"

"Are you going to thank me for my grand rescue?" Yuffie interrupted, grinning from ear to ear.

"I didn't need your help!" Seifer snapped, hmmphing as he crossed his arms over his chest. "If you wanna prove it, I'll own you any day."

Yuffie's grin got wider, if possible. If training with Cloud was painful and sometimes a bit repetitive... Owning someone would be gaggles (what are gaggles, anyway?) of fun. ""Are you challenging the great Ninja Yuffie? You, puny child-"

"Great Ninja Yuffie? Lame." Seifer chuckled and for some reason, Yuffie couldn't help but laugh too. "Fine then. After school, meet me in front."

"Don't all the cool kids hang out back?" Yuffie retorted as Seifer began walking away.

Waving over his shoulder, he spoke. "Ouback is for chickenshits. See you later, 'Ninja.'"

Her grin never leaving her face, Yuffie turned around only to crash into someone again.

Someone much studier, taller, and generally a lot more badass.

Staggering backwards, she looked up to see Cloud.

She hadn't really noticed it before, but Cloud's hair was... Interesting, almost enthralling. In fact, his entire face was generally a good thing to be look at.

She realized however, turning her attention to his lips that he had been talking for at least a minute now. "Uh, sorry?" she tilted her head to the side innocently, short hair bouncing.

Cloud sighed heavily, shaking his head back and forth. "I said we still have a lot of work to do." he spoke lowly, looking over her shoulder a moment then back to her. Turning her attention to over her shoulder she noticed a girl.

She knew that girl, but couldn't place her name right now. Looking back to Cloud, she realized that he was waiting for her attention to be back on him before speaking. "And I want to do some more training."

"Toooodaaay?" Yuffie whined loudly, shoulders slumping as she stuck out her lip. She wasn't used to this much training- it had been a couple years since she'd been living with her father. "My poor muscles need some rest!" she whispered back without realizing it, following his cue.

He smirked and Yuffie swore up and down he looked like he wanted to do something else, but she wasn't sure what. "Meet me out back after school." He was still whispering. With a nod, the trench coat wearing student turned and left.

"Guess Cloud's a chickenshit." Yuffie spoke aloud, stroking her chin. 'A hot chic-' she stopped her thought process right there and moved onto more productive things.

Like how she was going to get out of this mess.

As Yuffie's gaze wondered absentmindedly she found herself looking at the girl who still stood there, motionless. She was suddenly gifted by the gods with an excellent idea. "Hey!" Yuffie cried out, waving to the girl.

The girl's hair was blonde and Yuffie found herself a little bit jealous over her... Assets. "You were talking to Cloud, right? What were you guys talking about?" the girl's accusing voice reeked with so much judgment that Yuffie felt like she had been slapped roughly across the face.

Oh well, sometimes you had to bite the dust to get what you wanted done. "Yeah, yeah. Listen, he wanted me to tell you something."

She sneered, something that looked almost beastly on her, her nostril's flaring up like a troll. It was a shame, because she was kind-of hot (not like Yuffie was judging, or anything) other wise. "Why should I believe someone like you?"

"Me and Sp-Cloud, well, we go a little back. I owe him one, and he's really shy..." Yuffie trailed off and she could tell that she'd win this. This girl obviously had the hots for the spiky-haired warrior. "And well, he thinks you're really, really pretty. Beautiful, even."

"Go on." the girl purred like a tubby kitty.

"He wants you to meet him out back, after school." Yuffie was trying so, so hard not to break out into giggles. She was the master! Serves Cloud right for being such a hard ass all the time. "Be a little forceful though, he's really shy."

"He hasn't been the same since that day." the girl spoke absent mindedly, causing Yuffie to perk up. 'That day?' the ninja thought quietly. 'What does she mean by that day?'. "Thanks, Tuffie!" with that, the girl scampered off giggling, most likely to go and tell her friends.

* * *

Yuffie jumped out of the front doors of the school as it came to an end, throwing her arms into the air in joy and almost hitting two students in the face. Landing on the last step she looked around.

Finally she spotted Seifer, leaning against the flag pole of their school. She was kind of excited. Skipping over, she waved at the serious kid.

"Ready for me to kick your ass?" Yuffie challenged, sticking out her chest in pride. Realizing however that wasn't something girls her age should be doing (despite her flat-chestedness) she laughed nervously.

"Do you think I'd really fight a girl?" Seifer laughed, shaking his head. "I was just messin' with you, dork." Yuffie was mildly offended but also confused.

"Why'd you wait outside then?" Yuffie tilted her head as Seifer started walking away.

"Because I was talking about hanging out, Lamer." Seifer nodded his head foreword and strangely, Yuffie followed like a puppy behind him. Although a grade below her, he was kind of cool.

Probably the closet thing to a friend, anyway.

As they walked down the side walk, the air still heavy but yet to snow, Yuffie let her mind wonder between the idle chat the two shared. Did this mean they were friends? Did she even have any friends?

Squall, hell no.

Cloud? She definitely spent a lot of time with him, but she didn't feel like he actually cared about her.

For some reason, that hurt.

Yuffie came back to reality as they reached a fence marked private property. Peering through the holes in the chain link she realized that they were entering an abandon building.

Not like Yuffie cared about rules or anything, but she wasn't quite sure if she trusted Seifer just yet.

Seeing her pause, Seifer sent her a look and chuckled mockingly. "I thought you were tough, kid. Afraid of getting caught?" he sneered, but somehow he looked a lot cooler than that girl had. "Don't be such a chicken shit." with that said, Seifer grabbed onto the fence and started climbing up.

When he got to the top, he looked down, only to see no sign of the girl. A chuckle behind him made him made him turn around sharply. He raised his eyebrow as he saw Yuffie on the other side of the fence, looking bored already.

He stared blankly. Did he just get shown up by a girl?

"Don't be such a chicken shit!" Yuffie replied in jest, sticking out her tongue and pulling down her eyelid. "Com'on! Nyuck!" she turned and ran, leaving a still stunned Seifer to leap down from the fence and follow suit.

* * *

Cloud groaned in annoyance as he stood out side of the school. Where was she? The last couple days he'd caught her trying to sneak away, but he thought if he approached her straight up and talked to her she would be more inclined to go.

He would be checking his watch if he had one.

"Cloooooud~!" his eyes widened as he didn't recognized the voice. Looking to his left, he saw the girl that had been trying to listen to his and Yuffie's conversation from before. "I'm so glad you waited outside for me."

What the f-

"You know, I've always thought you were like, super attractive." she winked her eyes at him in some attempt to be seductive. Cloud had seen gyashi greens more seductive. "I'm so glad you share the same feelings- I mean, after, well, you know, died..."

Cloud winced at the mention of the past events.

"But I'm so glad you're over it! So, what did you want to meet me for?"

Cloud was very displeased.

* * *

Sitting on the edge of the tallest building in the city, Yuffie let a smile grace her features as she sat next to Seifer. Who would have thought someone else shared at least some of the same interests as her?

This was happening so fast, too!

Yuffie loved it when things came together quickly.

"You know, Yuff." for some reason Seifer didn't really use her name. "You're not that much of a chicken shit at all."

"Says you, you almost puked from fear when those security guards almost caught you." Yuffie taunted back, shaking her head. "Who's the lamer now?"

This went on for a half hour, Yuffie feeling pleased to actually be opening up with someone. She tried with Cloud and hell, maybe even Squall, but it wasn't that easy and they didn't seem interested in her at all.

Thus, when she got home and fell asleep in bed that night she couldn't think of anything she could have done wrong.

Yuffie skipped into school the next morning with a grin so wide one might think her face would crack into two. She hadn't been this happy in awhile- she had done something other than do homework or train battle skills.

Yuffie stopped suddenly and opened her eyes, looking out to see a very angry Cloud walking her way. She was about to tease him about yesterday when she saw the look on his face-

That was not a teasing look.

That was a running away look.

"Heeeey, Spikes." she laughed awkwardly. 'Please don't let me die today.' she mentally prayed to whatever Gods were listening. Maybe today she would be spared- somehow, she didn't even think the gods would be saving her from Cloud's wraith this evening. Why was he so pissed off, anyway? It wasn't like she'd tried to kill him or anything- he just sent some chick his way. "How was your day, yesterday?"

"I hope you had fun, whatever you were doing." he bit out bitterly, his mako eyes flaring. He looked around before grabbing Yuffie roughly by the arm and dragging her out of the school, so passing students wouldn't hear.

Yuffie did not protest this time.

"Youwerepushingmetoohard!" Yuffie excused herself. For some stupid, annoying reason she felt guilty. Bad, even. This wasn't the first time he was able to hit her with so many emotions. However, underneath these emotions there was something else, something much scarier, and when she made eye contact with him she felt it even more.

It was something she needed to suffocate and kill before she got herself into something really bad.

"Pushing you too hard?" Cloud narrowed his eyes, continuing, his voice was struggling to stay monotone. "I thought you enjoyed-" he stopped for a second and seemed to be gathering his thoughts. "The time you spent training."

"I did!" Yuffie protested, folding her arms over her chest. "But whenever we do it always feels like you're thinking about other things you'd rather be doing, so I just end up getting my ass kicked and not learning anything. How am I supposed to learn to fight heartless by _not_ fighting heartless?"

"I'm just following Merlin's orders." he narrowed his eyes more deeply, if possible. "You're being-"

"Don't even try and say anything about me." Yuffie pointed her finger into Cloud's chest and with each word she poked harder and harder. "You have me so friggen confused! You're harder to figure out then a rubix cube! I don't know if you hate me-"

Cloud grabbed Yuffie's finger and removed it from his chest, letting it go with a glum look.

"There's that look again, too!" Yuffie folded her arms back over her chest. "That look like you wanna say something but you don't! Spit it out, chocobo head!"

"..."

Yuffie began to try and think up some theories in lack of Cloud supplying the truth. "You must have some ridiculous secret or something. Is that it? Is that why you're a hardass? Because you have some ridiculous past?"

"You don't know what you're talking about, Yuffie." Cloud was closing up again and for some reason that sent Yuffie into panic mode.

"I'm sorrrrry!" her tone took away from her apology but nonetheless it caught Cloud's attention. "I don't know what part of this made you so mad but I'll try and fix it, okay, Spikes?"

"..." Was she dense or something? Cloud thought it was pretty obvious. Even if she didn't probe into the inner depths of his feelings on the matter- she tried to set him up with some kind of succubus.

"Here! How about this?" it was completely impulsive, but Yuffie was not one to think things through. Throwing her arms out wide she hugged him.

Hugging Cloud would have seemed like a stupid idea if she had been thinking.

Her face nuzzled into the leather of his jacket and she suddenly felt something she knew she shouldn't be feeling- but it was comforting, warm and a whole bunch of pleasant things.

Cloud froze, his body confused. He wasn't expecting this and the sudden embrace from Yuffie made him hope for something more. Could she? He narrowed his eyes. Even if she did, he didn't deserve her- he was cursed, disgusting, and somehow, he believed himself to be the whole reason for everything that was happening.

But some part of him wanted a little bit of joy in his pitiful life, thus he allowed her to hold on. He even inched his hands onto her back, the height difference was obvious, but yet neither noticed it at the moment.

Yuffie tensed for a slight moment when she felt Cloud return the embrace- that made it something serious. Before she was kind of doing things on the fly, being rash. She assumed he'd just push her away and freak out at her- but returning the hug made her brain crash and struggle to reboot.

The bell ringing snapped her out of it. Yuffie jumped back, breaking the embrace, and feeling way too warm for January. Fidgeting, she looked towards the school and waved. "Uh, I gotta get to class-er-meet you out back-for make out-" Yuffie quickly corrected herself. "Make up training! Make, up, training!" with that she was off like a bullet, running into the school doors and out of Cloud's sight.

* * *

So that's the chapter, hope ya'll enjoyed the hug at the end.

Here's a preview of what's to come.

_"A party? A high school party at that? I've seen the movies, aren't those where all the sex, drug, and rock and roll happens?"_

_"Spikes," she made a point of not saying his actual name this moment, not to make herself feel any weaker kneed. What was happening to her? The more and more she got to know Cloud the more and more she felt this odd, confusing, feeling in her stomach- or was it her heart? It tingled all over. "I cannot. Cid said that, no matter what, on friday night I could not go out."_

_"Guess Leon was smart to take his shirt off."_

_She was obsessed. _

"_Does everyone of you guys need friggen bells attached to you?" _

Sponge!


	14. Chapter XIV

Last chapter of the three chapters you've been seeing. The chapter after this, I promise, is going to be much more descriptive and back to my old style that a lot of people liked more. Just took me awhile to get back into the swing of things, eh?

Plot really kicks up next chapter, too.

Again, special thanks to my beta reader, always-kh, and all of my readers. Got any questions or thoughts? Feel free to let me know, I'm pretty chatty if you can't tell.

If anyone is into FF8 I'll be doing a drabble for them soon, and also a RikuXTifa in the upcoming days.

* * *

**C**_**H**_**AP**TE**R** **X**I**V**

_**Getting to know you, part III.**_

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* * *

  
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Training was becoming stiffer and stiffer.

Yuffie was completely nerve wracked the entire time and when she was nervous she tended to talk. Well, she tended to talk a lot anyway, but when she was nervous her words tended to run together and she said a whole bunch of embarrassing things she really didn't want to say.

Dirty secrets, her inner thoughts, basically a whole bunch of word vomit.

Cloud for his part, was actually quite the relaxed player. When Yuffie became jumpy when he tried to correct her fighting stance, he merely waited for her to relax and continue onward. When he would corrected a dodge by getting her to repeat it and notice that she was getting self conscious, he would be patient repeat it until she wasn't self conscious anymore, although Yuffie was fairly sure he got annoyed by doing that.

However, she had begun to look forward to their training sessions more and more. She knew that, in the very back of her mind it wasn't because she was becoming stronger and faster. That was an added bonus. But the real reason was something she was definitely not ready to admit, something that she kept buried deep in the Atlantic sea of denial.

As the lunch bell rang, Yuffie exited her English class with her messenger bag slung over her shoulder. The sea of students waved by her and she paused for a second to decide which way she was going to go.

"Hey, Yuff!" Yuffie's eyebrows perked up as she heard someone shout her name from somewhere to her left.

Guess she was going that way.

Turning quickly, Yuffie saw Seifer approaching her before he stopped in front of her. She gave him a big grin which he returned with a smirk.

"How's it goin', midget?" Yuffie teased with a Chester cat grin on her face. "Need to borrow a stool from me, or something?"

"Chicken shit." Seifer growled as he crossed his arms over his chest, but somehow the atmisphere was still light. "No, I wanted to ask if you wanted to check out this cool party with me on friday night."

"A party? A high school party at that? I've seen the movies, aren't those where all the sex, drug, and rock and roll happens?" Yuffie continued her teasing and managed to get a chuckle out of the blond haired youth. She didn't succeed and Seifer quickly continued the conversation without missing a beat (besides the whole laughing part.)

"That's college parties, but those are lame anyway." Seifer's voice took on a slight edge but he continued. "You coming or not? Let me guess… You've got a bed time at eight, don't you?"

"Nah. Great ninjas don't have bedtimes, even a midget like you should know that." this was only half true- she only didn't have a bed time if she managed to convince Cid on the morning after that she'd been at home the entire night and he was just too drunk to realize it. She was about to continue her ranting, when a movement over Seifer's shoulder caught her eye.

Cloud causally leaned against a row of lockers, waiting patiently for their conversation to end.

Was it just her or did his hair look more fabulous than usual?

Shaking her head, she brought her gaze back to Seifer. However, Seifer wasn't an idiot and turned his head to see what she was looking at. Making a sound that sounded kind of like a cross between a snort and a snicker, he spoke. "You hang out with that guy a lot- sure you won't have a date with him Friday night?"

Feeling her face grow warm, Yuffie gritted her teeth together, fighting the sudden rush of embarrassment. "They're not dates, midget!" in truth, the height difference wasn't that great- Yuffie was short herself, but finding someone even shorter then her in this case made her ecstatic. "We just hang out sometimes."

"Like everyday?" Seifer replied back cockily, raising an eyebrow as his smirk turned into more of an all-knowing grin. "I'm not a stalker so don't call me that-"

"Stalker-"

"People talk, a lot and especially about someone like him." Seifer motioned by flicking his chin back, that smirk coming back to his features. "I didn't think you'd hang with someone like him though."

Yuffie let her gaze wander over to the ever patient Cloud before coming back to Seifer. When he said that she felt the urge to be defensive on Cloud's behalf- Seifer didn't know Cloud like she knew him, which was barely at all, but that wasn't the point of the matter. Cloud didn't deserve to be talked badly about.

Yuffie blinked and realized that Seifer was talking. She really needed to stop doing that.

"-But after that, he wasn't cool anymore. He never did recover. Ditched all of his old friends besides that 'Leon' Leonhart-" Yuffie, despite the seriousness of the situation, felt an overwhelming need to make fun of Squall's alias. "And now is a total, well... You can see."

Yuffie puffed out her cheeks as her face went red. Clenching her fists, she leaned foreword and then poked him in the chest. "You don't know anything about Spikes-" she paused, perking up considerably. "You were saying something before. What changed him?"

"Spikes? You even have a nickname for him, how cute." Seifer laughed sarcastically and Yuffie suddenly felt self conscious. However, Yuffie waited through this, wanting to know the answer to her question. "Well yeah, like, five years ago-""

"Seifer!" Yuffie and Seifer looked to see a frosty haired girl in a blue shirt and skirt. Next to her a tall, muscular teen stood casually. "We've gotta get goin', ya'know? Lunch is probably almost over, ya'know?"

Seifer nodded, raising his hand to give Yuffie props. Leaning her head foreword, she tilted her head to the side in both bemusement and interest. Did people actually _do_ that? Seifer chuckled at her naivety before pushing his own knuckle into her foreword, causing her to yelp and stand up straight. "Later, Yuff." He spoke as he turned around and walked over to his friends, whom all began walking away.

Stunned, Yuffie stared after them in annoyance- she was so close to finding out about this thing that had happened in Cloud's past! It was a mystery that needed to be solved and if Yuffie didn't love solving mysteries then she wasn't a ninja!

"That was certainly a long conversation." Yuffie yelped, jumping to the side, raising up onto one leg as she curled up her entire body. Her heart calmed down, allowing Yuffie to let out a low growl. "You and Merlin both need to attach a bell to yourselves!"

"I thought you were supposed to be a ninja, shouldn't you be the one sneaking up on me?" that tone... That twinkle that was dull, but still a twinkle, in Yuffie's opinion... 'Is he joking with me?' Yuffie thought to herself, unable to believe it. Shaking her head, she replied in her confident manner.

"Is that a challenge? Prepare for a week of startles!" Yuffie placed her knuckles onto her hips, lifting her chin up as she boasted openly. Looking the other way, she didn't notice the half smirk that inched up onto Cloud's face.

"What were you talking about?" Cloud inquired suddenly as the friendly mood began to dissipate. Yuffie suddenly looked guilty, as the tone of voice he was using now was his usual dark and moody. "You've been hanging around with that kid for a while now." Something made Yuffie feel like she was being accused- did he know that she'd ditched him to hang out with Seifer?

Well, it wasn't _really_ ditching...

And plus, he had no way of knowing!

She still felt guilty- someone, who'd waited to talk to you, that you'd been talking about them practically the entire time? Although she defended Cloud she still felt like she had done something dirty. She was about to say that she'd been invited to go to a party, but, for some reason, she felt the need to hide it. Thus, she opened and closed her mouth like a fish before she finally thought of something to say. "Er, uh, nothing."

"Nothing?" Cloud replied back skeptically, raising a thin- Yuffie was beginning to really, really appreciate those eyebrows. Were males suppose to have eyebrows curved that well?- blond- and that hair! It was an amazing colour. She'd never seen anything like it- eyebrow. "Well, listen. Merlin's saying that you're almost done your base training with me... Apparently you're ready for field work. Your first patrol is Friday night-"

Yuffie's entire body tensed roughly as Cloud spoke. Her palms facing downwards as she pushed her entire arms down, she spoke in a nervous rush as she interrupted him. "I can't! Cidsaidthatnomatterwhathappenedicouldnevergooutfridaynight!" the lie escaped her mouth so quickly that Yuffie didn't have time to stop it or take it back.

Cloud's brow line fell flat as his expression dulled. "You'll have to repeat that."

Yuffie took a deep breath before repeating herself. "I can't. Cidsaidthatn-"

"I meant slower, Yuffie." Yuffie blinked, face getting a pink tint. She was acting like some sort of fangirl! She was a great Ninja, not a little girl with a playground crush.

But he'd used her name! How often did he use her name? It sounded so good coming from him. She really needed to hear it again sometime.

Somehow she felt it was less then she used his actual name.

"Spikes," she made a point of _not_ saying his actual name this moment, not to make herself feel any weaker kneed. What was happening to her? The more she got to know Cloud the more she felt this odd, confusing feeling in her stomach- or was it her heart? It tingled all over. "I cannot. Cid said that, no matter what, on Friday night I could not go out."

Cloud moved his head back as if he couldn't understand what Yuffie was talking about. "Why?" he asked, and suddenly Yuffie wished that they could go back to when Cloud didn't talk at all.

She didn't want to lie to him, but for some reason she felt like if she told him the truth she'd make him mad. Partying instead of training and fighting? Yep, he'd definitely beat some sense into her. "Uh, er, he said something about my father and I instantly tensed up-"

Cloud nodded and Yuffie shut her mouth. "Training after school then. Meet me out back."

"Okay dokey!" Yuffie grinned widely as Cloud smirked- well, in Yuffie's opinion when she looked back at this moment she would believe it was more of a grin- and did that thing were he stood, straining, as if trying not to do something he wanted to do. Yuffie could, in fact think of a lot of things she wanted to do to him, but knew she couldn't.

As he turned and began walking away, Yuffie made a face. 'I need to stop thinking like this.' Yuffie's shoulders drooped as she began walking the opposite way. 'I mean, I knew I'd had to go through puberty- that's it. I'm just maturing into a lady and noticing the male race for the first time.' deeper and deeper into the sea of denial she tried to drown herself.

However, she couldn't help feel both excited and nervous for training today.

'I probably only feel nervous about Fenier,' Yuffie convinced herself. 'But Cloud's aducted me so many times that I'm definitely used to his motorcycle by now...'

* * *

"Oh gooooooooood, Spikes, I'm dying." with a green face, Yuffie felt her helmet steam up as she gripped Cloud from behind. Her eyes were shut tightly as it felt like her stomach was trying to escape, twirling and forcing its way up her throat. Her hair blew back into her face, thus, even if she did open her eyes, hair would fly back into her face. Moving her head over the side, she used Cloud as a shield against the harsh wind resistance.

* * *

Yuffie still staggering back and forth, like usual, as they entered the training area of their organization. She smiled loosely and stretched out before walking to the far end and picking out her Rising Sun. Behind her, she was aware of Cloud moving some of the workout items that Squall used to the side, clearing space.

"Today we'll be fighting one another." Yuffie froze, becoming as stiff as a board. Really? For some reason that was a little bit terrifying. Gulping, she turned around to see Cloud taking off his trench coat. Underneath he had a blue turtle neck that looked oddly comfortable.

Thinking back to when she hugged him, Yuffie hadn't noticed his scent at the time. But she remembered it now- like sweet grass and spice.

God, she could just-

'Bad thoughts, bad thoughts.' Yuffie began panicking as Cloud took his buster sword off of the wall. 'Thinking bad thoughts, distracted, that is a _big_ sword-'

"-We've never actually properly sparred so I'll give you a good warm up before you go onto the field."

Yuffie began to protest. She didn't feel in her gut that she could harm him, especially with those little moogles fluttering in her chest. Those little guys were flapping around like they were partying pretty hard.

Yuffie shook her head. 'Focus girl, focus. Cloud's not having this problem- he'll pound your face into the ground without any regrets.' her depressing inner dialogue, she spoke. "I've already fought heartless and they're not exactly as... Solid, and hard as you. They kind feel soft and easy to stab with kunai." the irony currently was that she was hiding her face behind her Rising Sun. "Why don't you help me with my battle stance again? Yeah, my battle stance, that would be excellent. Perfect, even!"

Cloud smirked. 'When did his smirking become attractive?' Yuffie thought, her mind chatter almost overshadowing Cloud's words. "Is the _great_ Yuffie declining a challenge?" Cloud baited with a bit of sarcasm, following his words with a tilted eyebrow.

"Ha! Never! The Great," Yuffie stressed her words. "Ninja Yuffie never declines from a challenge! It's on!" Yuffie fell hook, line and sinker for the trap. Getting into a battle stance, she held up her Rising Sun with a look of determination on her features.

Cloud's smirk became stale as he charged forward towards Yuffie, entire body was ready for the fight. However, suddenly, Yuffie's eyes widened. "Hey, you tricked-" she exclaimed loudly, but was interrupted by Cloud bringing down his buster sword upon her.

Yuffie let out a few choice curse words as she dodged to the left. Cloud recovered from his missed attack impossibly quickly and was already on her, swinging across. Yuffie reacted without thinking, leaping over the blade and landing on top of it. Cloud's eyes widened as he turned the blade over. Yuffie yelped and almost fell off of the sword, but managed to kick her foot off and get a little bit of air time. Twirling her Rising Sun she threw it, landing next to Cloud's left side before running forward.

Cloud quietly brought up his buster sword as Yuffie passed next to him, blocking the Rising Sun with ease. His eyes widened when he heard the sound of fabric ripping as Yuffie scampered off behind him. Looking down, he saw that Yuffie had managed to slip out one of her kunai and cut him. 'She's improved a lot.' he thought to himself, eyes narrowing as he noticed that she hadn't cut him, just his shirt.

"Wait." Moving out of his battle stance, Yuffie took this as a time out. Running, she picked up her Rising sun and turned around to see Cloud with his buster sword leaning against the wall.

Cloud really liked this turtleneck, too.

Good thing he had eight other pairs at home.

"Guess Leon was smart to take his shirt off." Cloud grabbed the edge of his sweater and for Yuffie, it happened in slow motion. His calloused hands grabbed the turtle neck's fabric and his elbows bent, slowly lifting the turtle neck up to reveal-

Yuffie yelped with a face redder then a tomato as she grabbed his hands. Cloud blinked, completely baffled by the sudden movement. "Don'tdothat." she would die- she knew in the bottom of her heart that she would die. She would die either from his hotness or his sword slicing through her brain because she was distracted by his hotness.

Cloud's emotions went from confused to jealous. Oh, Squall shirtless was an excellent thing, but him shirtless was enough to make her freak out?

The look in Cloud's eyes made her panic. "I might cut you!" she yelped loudly, hiding her head. 'And you might slice my head off because I'm too busy checking out your body.' she thought numbly. "I mean, you're so much weaker then me." Yuffie took a step back as she beamed. "You need all of the protection you can get."

Cloud blinked. She was _concerned_ about him? Cloud felt confused but shrugged it off. "You're getting cocky again, kid." Cloud lifted up his shirt and Yuffie's mind went blank, her jaw slack.

She was biased she knew, but _damn_.

Hell, she didn't even care that she missed cutting him.

In fact, she was kind of glad.

Turning around, Cloud grabbed his buster sword from off of the wall and turned back to her. Her face was red. Was she that exhausted? "You must not have improved as much as I thought, kid. Your face is red from exhaustion."

Of course, Yuffie's face and ears got even warmer.

"Shut up!" Yuffie yelled in embarrassment, bringing her Rising Son down like she had nothing to lose. Cloud blocked it easily as the sound of metal smashing against metal rang out in the room. Cloud's muscles twitched and moved as he lifted his Buster Sword and brought it down again, and Yuffie staggered back like a drunk, barely dodging the attack.

She was completely in tune with him and she felt afraid. Every time he moved she saw his muscles twitch, tense, and finally relax only to repeat the process over again.

She was obsessed.

She leapt back and while she was in the air she used her time off of the ground wisely. With her free hand she threw a couple of spare kunai, which Cloud blocked by spinning his blade upside down and bracing it with both hands.

Yuffie rushed forward and kicked the sword with a side kick, hoping to knock Cloud over with the force of her kick. No avail. Cloud's body absorbed the shock easily as he pulled the sword back, causing Yuffie to gulp.

He brought the sword down and Yuffie dodged under it, getting closer than Cloud expected. Cloud's eyebrows rose up as she kicked off of his knee, causing him to bring his arm over to absorb the hit. He suddenly dropped his sword, an uncharacteristic move for him. As she tried to escape she found herself being grabbed by a pair of strong, powerful arms.

"Argh!" Yuffie began squirming like a child as Cloud quickly put her into a headlock. One arm went around her neck as his other arm went against the side of her head. He could break her neck.

Still struggling, Yuffie's face grew hotter by the second. 'Great. He could kill me right now and all I can think about is how hot he is shirtless. Yuffie, old girl, what's happened to you?' she thought sarcastically and bitterly, feeling him tighten his grip.

When he spoke, his mouth was right by her ear and Yuffie shivered. By the delay in his voice- and much to her embarrassment- she was pretty sure he had felt her sudden shiver. "What would you do if you got yourself into a situation like this?"

"Probably have my neck broken." Yuffie replied with a slight gasp, feeling Cloud loosen his grip. "Yeah. I probably wouldn't be talking right now either. I'd be a big 'ld pile of dead ninja."

When he spoke, his warm breath tickled her neck and Yuffie began to feel self conscious. "Don't ever give up. That's when the heartless get you."

Yuffie couldn't help herself. "You seem to have given up." she muttered softly.

Cloud tensed. Releasing the smaller teen, he stepped away from her. When he didn't reply, Yuffie continued. "You don't smile, you smirk. You don't talk, you instruct. It's like you're a ghost, Spikes. Like you've given up." Where was she getting this from? She needed to stop spewing nonsense before Cloud actually killed her.

Cloud moved quickly, causing Yuffie to gasp as she soon found herself in that lock once again, this time a little bit tighter. "We're going to work on you getting out of these."

She got the message- he didn't want to talk about this.

This one time she'd let him get away with it.

* * *

"I've got the jist of it." Yuffie replied as she quickly and smoothly escaped from Cloud's lock again, for the one thousandth time. Placing a hand on her hip, she tried her best not to staring greedily at Cloud's very delicious chest.

Oh she knew now, very well, that she had feelings for him.

She'd been rescued from drowning in denial and her only choice now was to embrace it.

Well, almost, she was still blaming it on hormones.

Wiping drool off of her lip as she heard Cloud talk, but didn't actual listen, she couldn't help but grin slyly. "Uh sorry, what were you saying?"

'Hmhm, delicious washboard...'

"Nothing." he had been saying how proud of her he was, but hey, he was way too embarrassed to repeat himself. Perhaps it was fate that had given Yuffie a short attention span. What was she so distracted about, anyway?

"Thought you would have taken longer than that, brat."

Cloud raised an eyebrow and saw Squall leaning against the wall calmly.

Yuffie on the other hand, yelped quite loudly and pulled into herself, completely tensed and wide eyed. "Does every one of you guys need a friggen bell attached to you?" Yuffie calmed her breath before sending him a glare.

Cloud suddenly felt awkward. He should have felt Squall enter the room- now he wondered how much the brown haired warrior had seen.

"Merlin wants to see you, brat." Squall instructed as stepped out of the shadows with his arms folded over his chest.

"Neh!" Yuffie stuck her tongue out, resting her Rising Sun on her shoulder as she began leaving, heading towards the exit. "See yah later then, Spikes," she nodded towards Spikes, her eyes lingering for a moment to try and memorized every line of him. Not like she'd ever see him this anytime soon, she knew this was a one time deal. "Squallie." she looked towards Squall and nodded, sticking out her tongue before she retreated out of the room.

Squall, for all of his dislikes of Cloud's obsession for the spunky brat, waited for her to leave. "Well, at least she appreciates your assets."

Cloud raised his eyebrow in confusion, only to look down and realize with a slight blush what Squall meant. Ignoring the younger warrior's pestering, he turned and began to put his clothing back on. The turtle neck's wool felt good against his sweaty skin; although it warmed him up drastically.

"I guess you're all set, now." Squall continued with a dark look on his features. "She's drooling all over your looks. At least she has some attraction to you."

Cloud sighed, closing his eyes as he felt a various amounts of emotions rush through him. "What's your point, Squall?" Cloud couldn't keep doing this. Arguing with Squall was making him more and more agitated. Couldn't he leave well enough alone?

"That you're lucky." Squall glared at the back of Cloud's head. "The girl you're using as an emotional crutch happens to think you have a nice body. Can't blame her, though. Her interest in you is just as shallow."

Cloud turned as he began putting his leather jacket on. He really didn't need to be hearing this bullshit right now. Slipping his arms through the sleeves he adjusted the front, finally making eye contact with the gunblade wielding warrior. "When are you going to stop this?"

"When you start listening, Strife." Squall looked quite annoyed at the moment, those eyes sending daggers Cloud's way. The blond haired warrior was unaffected. "You don't really like her. You know that deep down, don't you? And even if you do, which I highly doubt, you'd realize her only interest in you is your bulging stomach muscles."

Cloud growled, strapping his buster sword onto himself roughly. He needed to kill some heartless. Now. "She doesn't like me." he protested. 'Even if she did, I wouldn't let her waste her time with me.' His thoughts were negative, as usual. Cloud began walking out of the room, suddenly feeling a tinge of jealously towards that boy he had seen Yuffie talking to recently. 'She'd be better of with someone like him, anyway.'

"Whatever." Squall growled back with that edge to his voiced that always caused Cloud to stop. Cloud didn't break the pattern. "You keep acting like I'm not affected by what happened, either, Strife."

Cloud knew what this meant- he walked out on Squall again, Squall was going to beat the lesson into his head, literally.

* * *

Yuffie kicked Merlin's door open with a big grin, blinking when she saw no one. She was about to ask where he was, but knew better by now to do that- whenever she did he would just appear out of nowhere.

Maybe that was the trick?

With an evil grin on her face Yuffie decided that this would be the time to snoop through Merlin's stuff. 'Bet I could find secrets of immortality in here...' she trailed off mentally as she snickered, a lustful twinkle growing in her eyes.

She jumped up when she felt a thin hand grasp onto her shoulder and whipped around to see a smiling Merlin behind her. Her heart roared heavily in her chest as it beast against her rib cage, trying to escape from her body in fright. The hairs on the back of her neck were still standing up when she spoke. "HOLYCHOCOBOS." Yuffie's voice was strained harshly as her entire body was still tense.

"That should teach you to try and work around the rules." Merlin snickered as he played with his white mustache, walking around Yuffie and sitting at in his soft, rainbow colored, leather chair. Was it always rainbow colored? Yuffie couldn't remember. "So Yuffie."

"Yes Sir!" Yuffie saluted Merlin in response, becoming stiff as a board as she tried to suppress her grin. Sometimes the only way to shake off nervous energy was to act like a goof.

"Cloud's been really training you, hasn't he?" Merlin cleared his throat and motioned Yuffie to sit down. Raising an eyebrow, Yuffie saw that there was no-

A poof of smoke and there was a rainbow colored bean bag chair.

"I've become excited by rainbows, lately, you see." Merlin adjusted his glasses as Yuffie sat down Indian-style. "Yuffie, do you think you're ready to learn about magic?"

Yuffie's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Ready, not willing, Yuffie." Merlin stared as Yuffie's face dulled again in disappointment. "Because I believe you are."

Once again, Yuffie's face was lit up.

"But I cannot teach you. You're different." Yuffie was about to protest but Merlin lifted up his hand to silence the girl. "Your magic isn't like Leon's or Cloud's. You use magic I haven't dealt with for a long time. While Leon could use Fira you would use a spell known as Bio II. While Cloud knows Thunder, you would know Haste or perhaps even scan. Understood?" Merlin stood up and walked across the room, shaking his head. "But I can do something for you."

Yuffie was confused, very confused. She was so confused she didn't even pay attention to Merlin when he poked her directly in the forehead.

She hissed and staggered backwards, grabbing her head and letting out a pain filled yelp. That hurt, a lot. It felt let her skull was melting. "What the fu-"

"Watch your language, young lady. Those are called curse words for a reason." Merlin scolded the young ninja with a wave of his finger. Yuffie grumbled to herself and attempted to walk out of the room, but instead stumbled and staggered her way there, her feet dragging along the carpeted floor.

As she opened the door and left, she heard Merlin's voice follow her out of the door. "Have fun on Friday!"

Yuffie froze as she closed the door, her mind feeling too much like it was melting to really process what he had said.

How did he?

Whatever, she couldn't deal with this right now.

* * *

Cloud ran a hand through his hair as he marked off another day on his calendar, another day of slaying heartless. Walking across his room, he sat in the chair of his research desk and leaned back, his mako eyes trying to sort out the cross wired circuits of his brain.

He hated the fact he enjoyed Yuffie's company.

She wasn't intelligent, she wasn't pretty, and she was in no way someone he could lean on, someone that could support him.

She was still just a kid.

But that didn't stop him from feeling the way he did. Cloud's lip rose in a bit of suppressed anger. He had no plans to act on his feelings for the ninja, instead hoped they would pass like all things did. But no, they didn't, and Cloud found himself opening up to her, almost like she was…

She wasn't her and she would never _be _her.

So why did he feel like this?

Cloud promised himself that he would never care about anyone else like he had cared about her, ever again. Then she'd come to town and it had started off small at first. He had noticed how she was being picked on and somehow, she had pricked at his conscious. It was a small fix, anyway, and he felt bad that someone had to be alone against the world.

Like him.

Cloud diverted his eyes from his blue walls and stared over at his bed, where Yuffie had recovered from her first heartless attack, to his knowledge. 'Then it just built from there, didn't it?' Cloud thought to himself, his gaze falling to his mirror as he looked at himself.

He'd been able to ignore her, just admire her from a distance and hell, Leon had known. But that was okay, right? It was just something to distract him from the feeling of emptiness that resided inside of him.

Then she'd gotten herself involved with his world, his dark and damp world. He hated the fact that, on so many different levels, was involved with _his_ world and was slowly sneaking her way in, further and further until sooner or later, Cloud knew, she would _become_ his world.

After he had saved her, healed her, things just were set in stone from there. He found himself worrying about her yet trying to push her away. But she'd seen him at his weakest and Cloud both hated that and loved it.

He was punishing himself by even being around her.

But seeing her get hurt didn't just bring him back to the past, it caused himself to become alive in away he hadn't been in awhile. Hell, Cloud hated to admit this to himself, just _seeing_ her brought him back to a happier time, before all of this heartless bullshit became the biggest part of his life.

Cloud knew that on some level, Leon was right. He needed to push her out of his life. He tried to tell himself that, but he found himself not wanting to do it. He tried to tell himself that because her training with him was over, he could see less of her.

But he knew he was lying to himself.

The day she'd hugged him, he knew. She hugged him and somewhere he felt like he was cared for, which scared him. But he still knew. When he had returned that hug, against every logical part of him, he knew that it was set in stone.

He could never see less of her.

* * *

So yeah, here are the previews for next chapter.

"_You can't ignore me!"_

"_I could eat your heart and it would be more then a tasty snack. You would become something. You would split into two and the heartless you would become would be something entirely different."_

"_You ready?" _

"_You care about him."_

"_Com'on, Yuffie, don't be such a chickenshit."_

Till next time,  
Sponge.


	15. Chapter XV

* * *

This chapter is a little bit more darker then what you've seeeeeeen of me so far, so rawr.

But I also think it's better written, sooooo.

~As usual, thanks to my beta reader, people reader, reviews and cheeseburgers.

* * *

**C**_ha_**_pt_**_er_ **XV**

**_Real life ain't no fairytale. _**

**_Just thought you should know._**

"You ready?"

Seifer wore his usual condescending smirk. His silver trench coat ruffled around him in the slight breeze and when he made eye contact with her, she couldn't help but feel like an actual teenager for once. His blond bangs fell across his forehead as the rest of his hair was contained by his black skull cap. Goosebumps raised the hair on his arms up, but he acted like he wasn't cold, as if by pure determination he could force away the cold of late January.

The air was still thick tonight. It felt like the air was holding back the snow that was supposed to come. The clouds above covered the night sky so not even a single star was visible. It was chilly, and Yuffie found herself wishing that she'd put on a jacket. Looking up with a sideways grin, she stared up at Seifer who stood on the steps to a very bright and loud house. The sounds of the party drifted into Yuffie's ears and she couldn't help but feel ecstatic.

She was going to be a part of something _normal_ for once.

"Duh," Yuffie replied back, stepping up onto the steps as she pushed past him. "I was doing this stuff before you were born, _midget._"

"We. Are. The. Same. Age." Seifer snarled as his eyebrows narrowed, his nostrils flaring. He cut in front of her before opening the door, showing her the inside of the house. The house was _packed_ and Yuffie couldn't believe that so many people were in such a small place. Seifer's smirk grew as he placed his hand on the small off her pack and pushed her in after him.

"Seifer!"

"Yo, Seifer, who's the girl?"

"Isn't that girl a freak?"

"That's the girl that knows Cloud!"

Did they think she was deaf? Yuffie narrowed her eyebrows deeply, standing kind of awkwardly by Seifer's side as she ignored the huge amount of talking that was going on around her. Next to them was the stair case that had an overhang. Yuffie noticed that the carpet was blue. Blue was a good colour. Shaking her head, she looked around the house and a lot of bareness- the unnatural kind. 'They must have moved all of the stuff before the party; whoever is hosting this party is pretty smart.'

"Seify!" Yuffie winced visibly, lips puckering out as she heard a familiar voice she couldn't place. Pushing her way through the crowd was the host, or hostess of the party. Yuffie's eyes widened as she recognized her as the girl she'd thrown Cloud at. Yuffie chuckled nervously to herself and began scooting away, preparing herself for a retreat if completely necessary.

This was an abrupt end to her first high school party.

"Oh my god, Tuffie!" Yuffie winced again as the girl, whom Yuffie had deemed the Banshee, wrapped her arms around her like a snake and practically began squeezing the life out of her. Gasping for air as Yuffie began pulling on the Banshee's arm; the ninja felt a great amount of relief as The Banshee released her. Stepping back from her, The Banshee grabbed Yuffie's shoulders and beamed a fairly pretty smile. "Thank you _so_ much. Cloud really opened up to me. I'll probably be dating him soon!"

Oh god, Yuffie suddenly wished that the Banshee had ripped her head off.

There was also a part of her that wanted to _rip_ The Banshee's head off for even suggesting that she would be able to date Cloud.

'I've fallen hard.' Yuffie winced before coming back to reality at the sound of Seifer's voice. He was talking to a couple of students that she had recognized around the school, introducing her to them. When they looked over at her, she flashed them a large, toothy grin and placed her hands on her hips. "The rumors are true, ladies and gentleman. I am the one and only Yuffie Kisaragi."

"She's just being a chickenshit for the hell of it, guys. She's actually not that lame." Seifer explained as the group gave her a stunned look. They all chuckled and Yuffie joined them, feeling the atmosphere and hell, she wanted to fit in.

This was weird, because half of the time Yuffie wanted to stand out.

She was deciding that she really didn't know what she wanted. She was lonely, but wanted to be alone, she didn't want to be around Cloud, but she couldn't stop thinking about him, she wanted adventure, but she didn't want to train to be an adventurer…

"Let's shut up and get some drinks, boys." Seifer nodded and motioned for everyone that had been talking to Yuffie and himself to follow. Yuffie, despite herself followed after them and watched as they grabbed some drinks off of a table. Seifer nodded towards Yuffie and handed her a red plastic cup, which she sniffed before making a face. "Com'on, Yuffie, don't be such a chickenshit."

"It smells like my Godfather's asshole." She gagged and almost threw the drink away at the moment. "I can't do it, sorry." Yuffie felt like she was going to hurl just from the smell of it. She wasn't stupid and was nowhere near the point in her life where she felt the need to drink.

"You'll be barred a chickenshit for life, Yuff." Seifer shrugged his shoulders causally as he took a swing of the foul smelling liquid with an ease that Yuffie couldn't even understand. "Suit yourself."

Yuffie narrowed her eyes, but shrugged the entire thing off, deciding that she would head upstairs to see what was going on up there. Cutting through the swarm of people whose body odors made Yuffie's nostrils twitch she managed to make her way up the stairs, passing a couple who were currently playing tongue hockey. Shuttering in repulse, Yuffie got to the top of the stairs and opened what she assumed was the bathroom.

It was.

However, fixing her hair in the mirror was The Banshee herself. Yuffie turned around, not even appreciating the pictures of fish all over the walls as she tried to make her escape.

"Oh, Tuffie!" for some reason, Yuffie never had the heart to correct the mistaken girl of her actual name. "Do you not like the party? Let me guess, you don't drink, do you?" she smiled brightly and Yuffie felt the urge to block her eyes away from the reflecting light.

"Yeah…" Yuffie trailed off, admiring the extremely white walls of the bathroom. It reminded her of The Banshee's teeth… She was beginning to see a theme.

The Banshee went back to fixing her hair in the mirror.

A silence stretched out between them before Yuffie's eyebrows perked up and she suddenly remembered something. Something about Cloud. This was not surprising. She remembered back that both Seifer and The Banshee had mentioned something about Cloud's past. Something she wanted to know, badly.

"Hey, listen." Yuffie had to try hard not to call her The Banshee out loud; at least not until she got her information. "You were talking about Cloud earlier-"

"-He is so hot, isn't he?-"

"You said something about his past before. What happened to him?" Yuffie tensed suddenly as the hairs on the back of her neck rose up. The air felt heavy suddenly and Yuffie had to lean back against the wall to stabilize herself. Taken back, she knew that feeling was connected to something important. 'Could it be? No. Heartless don't bust open random parties.' Feeling reassured, Yuffie waited for The Banshee's response.

"You don't know? I thought everyone did…" The Banshee flicked her hair once more and Yuffie had the resist the urge to tell The Banshee that wouldn't do anything. "About four, five years ago-"

The Banshee was interrupted as someone screamed downstairs. Yuffie growled underneath her breath as a number of shouts, screams, bangs, and finally crashes exploded from downstairs like a symphony of a ruined party. The Banshee pushed her out of the way and Yuffie wanted to grab her, shake her until she got the answers she wanted. Why was it, every friggen time that she was about to find out why Cloud was the way he was something just always had to interrupt?

'What are you doing, Yuffie?' the ninja thought to herself, bursting out of the bathroom as she saw people trying to get out. However, the entrance was being blocked by three Shadows and another heartless, one of those big fat ones that she had encountered before. 'You need to stop thinking about Cloud and handle this mess right now!'

She reached into her sleeve and cursed when she remembered that she had left all of her weapons at home. The screams were muted for a moment as she realized that for one day, one day, she had tried to live the life of a normal teenager and it was currently backfiring really, really hard.

Yuffie shook her head and looked behind her, grabbing the nearest weapon… Which was a plugged in hair straightener. Ripping it out of the wall, she grabbed the cord with one hand and used the other one to twirl it around. Letting loose a battle cry she vaulted over the banister on the second floor and landed amongst the chaos. Standing up straight she regarded the three Shadows and the fat one.

The metal of the hairstraightener a burning orange, Yuffie let out a witch-like crackle. The three Shadows noticed no fear from her and sank into the ground as the big fat one approached, throwing its body at her.

She already knew that trick.

Yuffie leapt into the air and landed on the big, fat heartless head before kicking off. Twisting her foot as she did so, Yuffie turned around, landing behind the fat heartless before it could turn around. She then grabbed the handle of the hair straightener and then forced it into the heartless' back. It sizzled and burned and caused black goo to ooze from its back as it made a strange, clicking sound.

Yuffie suddenly felt a surge of power rush through her veins and into the hair straightener itself. It felt gooey, the power. It moved slowly before it almost… Splattered out of her body. Thinking that she was going a little bit crazy she pulled the hair straightener out and then realized, as the fat heartless exploded into darkness and a wisp of smoke rose up, that what felt like five minutes to her had actually only been a few seconds.

Yuffie felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise up once again and she quickly turned and whipped the hair straightener behind her, slicing through the three Shadows that had tried to sneak up behind them and easily vanquishing them. She blinked, taken back suddenly as her mind began to clear again. She didn't realize how much stronger she had become and she really, really liked it.

The screams were back, she could hear them again as she came back out of the world of battle. A crash, a very loud one and the sound of broken glass shattered her reality and she looked over, staggering back as glass and debris flew her way. The force caused her to fall and she found herself falling onto the hair straightener, hissing as it burnt into her flesh.

Yuffie pushed herself up as quickly as she could. Her eyes were watering but, blinking a couple of times, she could see the wreckage, and once she did her heart stopped and her blood rain cold. She had never seen anything like it. Amongst the broken tables and wall was a… Humanoid being. Its skin was tanned harshly and it's long, brown hair touched the floor. Yuffie assumed it was female because of the tank top it was wearing, black and silver. A silver cloak was wrapped around her body, but Yuffie could make out some sort of skirt. The female, whatever it was, adjusted the black gloves on it's hands and took a deep sniff of the room. Despite the weird actions, Yuffie knew that she was in deeper then she would have liked. She could feel the energy crackling off of it, and she knew this heartless was more powerful than anything she had ever seen before.

She wasn't going to back down though.

Staggering into the living room, Yuffie cocked her head back and started twirling her newly acquired weapon. About a month or two ago, she'd wished heavily for her ninja weapons back in the country. She thought she had never wanted anything more in the entire world.

But right _now_, she wanted those weapons more then she could express into words.

"You're quite the party crasher, aren't you?" Yuffie teased as she raised an eyebrow. "But didn't you know that it's-"

The heartless looked over at Yuffie

When those yellow pupils made contact with Yuffie's blood rain cold. She watched in slow motion as the creature waved its hand and the shadows in the room began to ripple. The air got even heavier then it was now and Yuffie knew, suddenly she knew.

"Yuffie, what the hell are you still doing here you chickenshit?" Yuffie snapped out of her daze as both her and the heartless' attention was drawn over to a drunk Seifer, who staggered into the room. "We need to get out of here!"

"Seifer, get out of here right now!" she had thought that everyone had run out the back entrance. Of course, Seifer would be too much of an idiot to get out. The only one that was even mildly her friend here. Yuffie's life could be a bitch sometimes.

The heartless suddenly laughed a chilling, feminine laugh that made Yuffie look over with a grave expression on her face. Shadows, at least twenty of them emerged from the floor. Portals of darkness then appeared around the female heartless and these strange heartless came out. Blue-skinned with bronzy webbed wings, shoes, and a hat with a propeller on it, and pilot's goggles, they could even be described as cute.

Yuffie knew better.

Yuffie looked over to the still standing, still drunk Seifer before looking over to the large group of heartless staring at her. She took a hesitate step towards him, knowing that it was up to her to defend him.

"You care about him," the female heartless spoke, a sinister smirk coming onto her features. "It's cute, but a useless emotion." She cast a look to Seifer, giggling darkly. "I could taste his heart and he would be my minion, probably nothing more than a small, merger Shadow. But you…" she trailed off and looked back to Yuffie, causing the young ninja to grasp the cord of her hair straightened trying to reassure herself.

"I could eat your heart and it would be more than a tasty snack. You would become something. You would split into two and the heartless you would become would be something entirely different." The heartless laughed loudly at this, touching a hand to her chest. Yuffie on the other hand was not seeing the humor in the least. "I'll think I will do that now-"

However, the heartless stopped as the sound of an engine roared in the background. Yuffie watched with a raised eyebrow as the female sniffed the air, growling lowly. "It seems my meal has been cut short. I would have enjoyed your heart, little girl." The shadows rose around her and engulfed her, suddenly causing her to disappear into thin air.

Yuffie still had to deal with the forty heartless that, without instruction were beginning to walk towards her.

Yuffie ran to the side and in front of Seifer, throwing her arm back to protect the drunken boy. He leaned forward and grabbed onto her, trying to pull her back. "We need to _goooo_, Yuff-Yuff."

Yuffie was about to reply but suddenly the sound of that engine was way, way too loud. She whipped her head just in time to see Fenrir and Cloud jump through the broken hole that was once a wall and slice through three of the heartless. Cloud landed roughly and managed to get the vehicle to twist around, leaving tire marks in the carpet.

"Cloud!" Yuffie felt herself flood with relief. Bracing Seifer against herself, she'd never felt so glad to see the Buster sword wielding warrior before in her life.

"We need to mosey!" Cloud motioned for Yuffie to get on. Fenrir made a sound before a sword shot out of the side, which Cloud caught with ease. Yuffie nodded her head and grabbed Seifer, half carrying him to the backdoor.

"Yuff, where are you-" Yuffie shushed Seifer and almost pushed him out of the back door. He looked back, confused as he staggered off of the deck.

"Get out of here! I'll talk to you about it later!"

"Okay dokey." Seifer replied, waving to Yuffie before he wandered off in the direction of his house.

She felt bad about leaving him like that, but he was safer drunk on the streets than in this pit of heartless, unless he got himself attacked by a heartless on the way home… Shaking her head free of her thoughts, she ran back onto the scene to see Cloud still holding onto his bike, swinging his sword in attempt to fend them off. He had managed to kill a lot of them, as Yuffie could only count eighteen heartless.

"What are those things?! Yuffie yelled, pointing to the flying heartless. Throwing her hairstraightener like a lasso, she managed to wrap one of the flying heartless up and cause it to go flying across the room. "I haven't seen them before and they're _really_ strong."

"Air soldiers!" Cloud replied back as Yuffie jumped onto the back of his bike. She gripped him from behind as usual and he took off, flying through the broken wall and landing on the front lawn. Grass and dirt was picked up as Fenrir struggled for a moment to gain traction before speeding off onto the street.

Tires squealing as it made contact, Yuffie felt nauseous from the sudden lurch in speed. Leaning her forehead against the cool leather of Cloud's jacket, she spoke. "You really saved the day, Spikes."

Silence was her reply, which was something she was kind of used to.

Yuffie managed to gather the courage to look behind her and was rewarded by the sight of no heartless tailing them. Breathing a sigh of relief, she then looked around and realized she didn't recognize this neighborhood. Was Cloud just driving around aimlessly, now? Deciding she should correct him, she was about to speak, but he got there first.

"I thought you said you had to stay home, Cid's orders." Yuffie tensed up as her eyes widened. She had completely forgotten that she had lied to him. Panic gripped her, but once again before she could speak Cloud was there first. "Guess Cid doesn't know what you get up to on the nights that you're _not_ trying to help protect the innocent."

"Er. Cloud, I can-"

"Whatever."

Silence gripped them the entire way, until Cloud decided to drive a sick (both emotionally and physically) Yuffie to her home.

The snow had started sometime on their ride, small snowflakes fluttered against the pavement and stuck themselves and Yuffie's hair before thawing.

Yuffie hopped off the bike, her thighs sore as she turned. "Spikes, lis-"

"…" Cloud looked at her for a moment and Yuffie knew that look wasn't something she ever wanted to see again. Stunned silent, Yuffie was too dazed to even realize that Cloud was driving off until he was already past her house.

"Spikes! Sp- Cloud! Cloud!" Yuffie turned and ran in a lame and fruitless attempt to catch up to the blond teenager but found herself stopping after few feet. Hanging her head down, Yuffie felt shame well up inside of her. "I've really blown it this time, haven't I?"

"I would say, brat!" Yuffie froze as she slowly turned around, making eye contact with Cid.

* * *

School was horrible, now.

Seifer didn't remember anything about the heartless and neither did a lot of the people at the party.

But they did remember, quote; "How much of a chicken shit she was."

Not what she cared about, anyway.

She was used to Cloud being there, even if he was in the background. But he wasn't. She couldn't find him wherever she went, and this had been going on for about two weeks now.

When she went to Merlin's, he either wasn't there or left as soon as she got there.

She now had to patrol with either herself or Squall. She didn't like fighting heartless alone since she had been attacked by that woman, whom she hadn't told the others about. But fighting heartless alone and having a high chance of dying was better than fighting with Squall.

He was attractive and a good fighter, Yuffie would give him that. But, he hated her guts with a passion, and would never tell her why. Not like she'd asked or anything, but she just figured that he was one of those guys that hated and didn't tell.

So Yuffie would be fighting alone, again tonight.

Something about killing heartless made her feel a little bit better about _being_ so heartless herself.

She found herself in her room, going through her stash of weapons quickly, efficiently, and quietly. She was grounded for about a month, but she wasn't going to let that stop her. She had been sneaking out almost every day to patrol with Squall or just vent, slaughter those heartless like they were just a joke.

She stretched out and looked across the room to her calendar. It still said it was December when it was the middle of February. Normally she wouldn't fix such small things, but somewhere she felt if she could fix that calendar she could fix everything that had happened. Thus, with her Rising Sun strung up against her back, she ripped off two months so it would be February, so things could be _better_. She dropped the worthless pieces of calendar onto her floor and ran one of her fingers down the weeks, trying to locate what day it was.

It was a full moon tonight.

Turning around, she still felt a twinge of excitement as she walked to the window and looked out. "I'm really stupid sometimes." Yuffie let her forehead touch the cool glass of her window. She stared up at the cloudy sky that barely contained the moon this night, and sighed. "There's real monsters out there, and here I'm worried about some giant chocobo that I don't even have any proof that's real." Banging her head a couple more times against the window, her shoulders slumped before she forced the window open with a grunt.

The cold air felt chilly and Yuffie stared at the snow covered ground. It had been snowing off and on against since the night... 'Since the night I screwed over the guy I-' even in her thoughts she didn't want to admit it just yet. What was the point, anyway? She was just a skinny kid playing in a world for adults, and she didn't even know where to go to _become_ an adult.

What made you an adult in the first place?

She shook her head to free herself from her thoughts before pulling herself through her window, leaning forward even farther as she rested on the window sill. Closing her eyes she jumped forward and fell.

* * *

Cloud shouldn't be out tonight, he knew this.

He could feel it in his shaky hands, his wobbly stance and the fact it felt so god_damn_ hard to raise his sword.

But the heartless continued to swarm. Shadows, Large bodies, Knights, and even some Air Soldiers. He struggled to keep up with them, and that drove him even wilder. He _was_ better than this. He shouldn't have to struggle- he should be doing this with ease.

The playground was a common place for heartless and well…

Yuffie didn't usually show up there, and he knew if he saw her he might just crack.

Cloud brought his sword down upon the monsters that had ruined his life, biting his lip as he did so. In the distance he heard a shout, a battle cry he knew too well, and suddenly he felt like he had counted his chickens before they had hatched. He turned his shoulder and his blade, mako eyes flashing over to see the person he had stuck on his mind.

Cloud hated himself for the fact that he wanted to see her too.

She looked over to him and blocked a swipe from a Knight with her Rising Sun. With a flash of blind rage, Cloud turned and brought his sword through four more shadows, successfully banishing all of the heartless that wanted to fight him.

He was about to leave, he really was. But as the clouds moved and a little bit of light filled the park, Cloud felt his heart lurch. Staggering foreword he dropped his blade before falling down onto one knee, sinking down slowly into the snow. He struggled hard for his breath as he felt his pupils dilate, his breath coming out in wisps of steam.

"Cloud!"

Not _now._

Cloud gripped his chest as he grunted, hearing the sound of crunching snow. But it sounded distant, as if Yuffie was actually miles away instead of coming up right behind him.

He only knew when he felt her hand against his back.

"Cloud! What hit you?" Yuffie moved his arm and put it over her shoulder, causing him to gasp loudly and pull away. Cloud heard her growl in annoyance and he pulled away, feeling his skin begin to crawl. The clouds pasted on and the moon was free to shine brightly. Cloud looked over as his eyes almost glowed, seeing the hazy form of Yuffie.

She couldn't see him like this.

"Get out of here, Yuffie." Cloud snarled as his voice cracked. He tried to stand, but felt Yuffie against him again, supporting him. Did she know that she smelled kind of like roasted salmon and daisies? He wrinkled his nostrils, smelling something else. The air was becoming heavy again, too.

"I'm not going anywhere." Yuffie growled and managed to pull the weakened Cloud into her body. Cloud leaned his chin against her head, closing his eyes. She was warm. Really warm. Why didn't he hold onto her more often? He felt Yuffie tense before she spoke again, not releasing him, but feeling somewhat uncomfortable. "Cloud, we have to get you out of here. You've been hit by something. Really bad. You're acting really, _really_ weird."

Cloud continued to hold his grip, nuzzling his face against her soft hair. She smelt nice, felt nice, and was so warm. Again, his body lurched and he felt himself moving forward, causing Yuffie to almost fall on her face. Well, she would have, if Cloud hadn't grabbed her and brought her against him, smiling wide as he sighed. Was she talking? He felt her body vibrate, but he wasn't really listening to her words. Resting his face in the crock of her neck he felt pleased, safe and warm. His eyes were half lidded as he struggled to retain his form.

Her body was tense and he wished that she would relax. What was the big deal? He pulled her closer to him and wondered what she was talking about. He was sure, very sure, that from those beautiful lips she was talking about something. Couldn't she just enjoy the warmth?

"You can't ignore me!"

Cloud snapped out of his daze as he felt her mouth on his hand, before the feeling of pain rushed through his body. Yelping, Cloud staggered backwards and fell onto his back with a loud groan. His body lurched again and the cold, thawing snow managed to wake him up a bit. He felt it again- the heartless were coming and Yuffie needed to _leave. _"Yuffie, you need to get-"

She couldn't see him like this-

Had he thought that before?

"I. Am. Not. Going. Anywhere." Her eyes burnt intensely and Cloud knew, somewhere in that hazy mind of his, that she was too distracted to notice the warning signs of a heartless swarm. She leaned forward resting her hands on his knees, causing Cloud to grin stupidly. "You've been hit hard. The way you're actin-" she paused as she heard the sound of growling.

They looked like black dogs, small, tiny black dogs. But their eyes were that unmistakable yellow that Yuffie knew belonged to heartless. Around their midsections were red, studded dog collars. Yuffie stood up straight, watching wide eyed as they were surrounded by at least twenty of these small, yet dangerous looking dogs.

"Cloud," Yuffie grabbed onto him and with his help hoisted him up. He leaned onto her and watched warily, gripping onto her. They were slowly approaching and Cloud knew that there was only one way out this. He pushed Yuffie away and she staggered a bit, making a sound of protest. Cloud took a deep breath, knowing that after this he would have no control.

The moon glowed brightly in the February night sky. Cloud felt his muscles relax as energy began to charge inside of his body as his mako tainted eyes stared at the snarling group of dogs. They sensed his magic, his raw, undeniable power and wanted to rip him apart. They wanted to feast on his heart and make him one of them.

"Firaga!" flames burst up high around them, causing the yelping screams of dogs to rise up in the air with it. Cloud heard Yuffie gasp and draw closer to him, probably afraid of being burnt up. The flames looked as if they were trying to reach up and touch the moon before they disappeared in a puff of sparkles, leaving a large piece of snowless ground that had burnt so bad that the grass underneath was black.

Yuffie looked over in time to see Cloud fall to his knees. What was wrong with him? The way he was acting… She didn't have time to think about it. Cloud fell flat onto his face and she rushed to him, hoisting him up into her arms and struggling with the weight. They both fell backwards, Cloud falling against her limply.

"Cloud!" she reached for him and panicked. His skin was _rippling._ "Cloud!" his body lurched and all Yuffie knew was the sound of tearing. He suddenly got heavier and Yuffie was forced to the ground, grunting as she felt his body wither and convulse on top of her. She screamed and twitched,panicking even more when she felt… Feathers? Her eyes had been closed since he'd knocked her back, and when she opened them in a sudden, deeper rush of fear she could not believe what she was seeing.

His clothing ripped from his body as he pushed up against her. He turned against her and she made eye contact with those pained, panicked eyes. His body lurched up and he growled a high pitched growl as suddenly his spine popped out of his back, the lower half of his body pinning her down and forcing her to watch. His hands rested on either side of her and she stared as his face became long and turned into a beak, his lips pulling up as his teeth became the very beak itself. She knew what was happening and wanted to close her eyes, but like a train wreck she couldn't look away. His arms burst into feathers and his hips cracked as they moved forward. The sounds of his bones cracking and resetting were joined with his grunts and cries of pain, as sweat dripped off of his quickly disappearing forehead and onto her own. She felt a sudden, horrible feeling of sickness that rose harshly. Turning onto her stomach she pulled herself from underneath him before vomiting painfully.

Feeling like she was dying, Yuffie rose to her feet. Her mind was still trying to figure out the events that were happening. She couldn't even label them. She looked down at her hands and saw they were shaking roughly. She couldn't contain herself. Everything felt like it was far away or nonexistent. Even the burning taste of stomach acid in her mouth, that caused her tongue to curl and wither, felt far away- as if it wasn't really happening.

She didn't hear him approach, but only felt the head of, well, a chocobo against her back. She froze and slowly, oh, painfully slowly turned around. She could clearly see what was in front of her. The short, powerful looking beak. The yellow tuffs of feathers and those long, steady legs. She moved her head back as the chocobo- she refused to call it Cloud. Cloud had just gone away for awhile, that was all.- attempted to place its forehead against hers. Somewhere in her shocked mind she managed to make the connection of stepping _over_ her puke as she stepped backwards. She heard the chocobo squawk and then felt it's forehead against her own. She felt the feathers, she really did.

They were soft against her skin. But they still seemed distant. She looked into those eyes that looked happy, almost like a child's. But, those eyes could only belong to one person and she knew who. "Where are you Cloud?" she whispered, her body still shaking as she began to believe what she had just witnessed. "You wouldn't believe it. This Chocobo… This… T-t-this Chocobo has the same eyes as you.

The chocobo squawked in reply, moving his head back before ruffling his feathers.

"No. No." Yuffie shook her head before resting it in her hands. "Y-y-ou're Cloud." The chocobo, Cloud, turned his attention to her at the mention of his name. "Okay. Okay, Yuffie. You can deal with this." Cloud nudged her with his head as she almost staggered back. Instead she gripped his neck and felt him make some sort of pleased 'kweh'.

She knew what emotions this _bird_ was trying to portray.

No. Not a bird.

"Cloud." She spoke softly as she watched Cloud turn his head to the side. How deeply was he buried? Did he still know what was going on? Looking to the side, Yuffie saw his buster sword. With a sigh she walked over, listening to Cloud follow after her like a lost puppy. She reached down to pick it up and couldn't help but laugh in disbelief at how heavy it was. She could barely lift it up an inch!

"Kweh!" Yuffie looked up as she was nudged out of the way by Cloud's giant head. Staggering to her left, she watched in confusion as the large bird bent down and bit the sword's handle in it's beak. No, there was no way-

Yuffie stared in utter disbelief as Cloud picked up the buster sword in his beak.

This was perhaps the most ridiculous thing Yuffie had ever seen in her life.

Somehow Cloud was able to portray his persona through the body of an over grown chicken.

"Let's get going, chocobo head." Yuffie reached over and rubbed the top of Cloud's head with her shaky hands, not really thinking about it. When she went to reach her hand away, Cloud moved his head harder into her hand, like an affection cat. She avoided being cut by the giant sword in his mouth, but Yuffie had the feeling in the back of her mind Cloud was trying to avoid her anyway. "It's time for me to stop petting you, Cloud."

That was a sentence she never thought she would have to say.

* * *

I had to make that a little bit morbid because somehow, transforming into a chocobo doesn't sound that scary, nao does it?  
So now that the plots going underway, you'll probably see a lot less (or more, depending on my mood) filler.

If there's any questions so far about the transformation, they'll probably be explained next chapter.

So here's the previews for next chapter, which may take a little bit longer;

_"N-no, it's fine. Really."_

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" 

_"The power of the heartless has been increasing steadily..."_

"I'm a liar and you're a giant chicken, I don't really see whose the bad guy in this situation."


	16. Chapter XVI

This chapter is a little bit shorter then the usual, but that's probably because it's lacking something I usually have in every chapter!  
But you can't guess what it is. ;O

A lot of you have been wondering some of the things you'll be finding out in this chapter for awhile, maybe even a year if you've been following me since I first began writing this story.

Wow.

I've been writing this for awhile.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter!

Thanks again to my beta reader, always-kh, the people that reviewed me this chapter (really, thank you, all of you. Even just the fans that have accounts for stalking, thank you!), and everyone else that has been reading quietly. I just like knowing that people out there really enjoy this story, and want to read more of it.

* * *

**C**_**h**a_**t**_**p**er **XVI**_

**_Call me, I'll be waiting._**

**_Don't forget, I'll be waiting._**

This distance, between us,

Means nothing.

_  
**I **will **be waiting.**_

Yuffie is stealthy.

Everyone knew that.

Even Squall, whose goal in life seemed to be to tear Yuffie down, down until she was gone, could tell by the few fights he'd seen her in, she was stealthy.

Yuffie had spent her entire life, besides the couple of years she had spent in the city, training to become a ninja.

Ninjas were stealthy.

And thus, logic tells us that Yuffie is stealthy.

This was very easy logic to follow.

So, as Yuffie led a chocobo carrying a giant Buster Sword down the backstreets of Radiant Garden, she did it with the belief in herself that she could go unseen. There was no reason why she couldn't slip a giant, neon yellow chicken down pretty well lit neighbourhoods- Yuffie was sure she could have done it as a toddler, let alone with the skills she posessed at this moment!

But her head felt heavy, her body weary. She thought she was going left one moment and realized that she hadn't even _moved_ let alone gone in any direction. She felt like her body was moving through a bucket of jelly; she knew she should be moving faster than she was, yet she just didn't feel her body responding. Her eyes saw things happening, people crossing streets, yet, she reacted slowly. Her hands still shook like she was dying and her mind, hell, her mind knew what was going on, but was more distracted than a child in a toy store on christmas.

'Christmas...' Yuffie thought to herself gleefully, completely ignoring everything around her. "That was a couple months ago." she spoke these words aloud, almost alerting a lovely teenage couple of her and the werechocobo's current hiding spot behind a dumpster, out of visibility of the nearby streetlight.

For Cloudabo's sake, he seemed to be handling the situation better than Yuffie was. Whenever she was about to move forward at a time she shouldn't, Cloudabo would move his large, powerful leg and block her from moving forward until it was the right time, until they had cover.

It took longer than it should have, but the two, ninja and giant chicken, made their way to Merlin's house. The brick house stuck out like a beacon in Yuffie's mind, a sign that she could stop trying so hard to move. Her body suddenly gave up even more than it had before, she could feel it struggling now, struggling to even take the last couple of steps to the door.

She grabbed the door knocker, and Yuffie found that for the first time, she found it hard to move. When it hit the door it sounded like gunfire and if Yuffie had the mental strength to jump back, she would have. Cloudabo made a sound behind her, but she did her best to ignore it.

She had accepted that Cloud could turn into a giant chicken.

But, somehow, she still felt like she was going to throw up.

The door opened and she saw Squall. She knew who he was, she did, but for a moment she just stared at him with those eyes of utter confusion, as if her brain was unable to label him. When he spoke, it took her a moment to begin processing words.

"Yuff- Oh." He paused for a moment, noticing Cloudabo instantly. His eyes went from annoyance to indifference before he realized something with a look of horror that he tried to hide. "Where'd you find this thing? You should know better than to use the excuse 'it followed me home', so don't try."

Lies never settled well with Yuffie, especially when she was only being lied to because people thought she couldn't handle the truth. If she was aware of everything going on, she probably would have had time to be offended. "Well, he did." She stood on the front step dazed, until Cloudabo nudged his head into her back and forced her forward through the doorframe, causing Squall to sidestep out of the way with a slight hesitation. "And I didn't _find _him, Leon."

"Its le-" realizing at that moment that Yuffie had actually called him by his preferred name, Squall became silent. The Cloudabo stood tall, taller than the both of them as he held the Buster Sword in his beak. Craning his giant neck back, Cloudabo rested the Buster Sword against the wall before looking back to them both, eying them with those adorable, child-like eyes. Squall didn't want to show affection or care for the small ninja, but he felt obliged too- if she _had _seen Cloud transform then she might never be the same. "Did you-"

"Yes! Yes! Yes! _Yes!_" Yuffie felt her fists clench and she bit her lip, feeling so many things at once. This was way too screwed up for her liking. Cloudabo, sensing her conflicting emotions nudged his head into her side and pushed her towards the living room. "Do you think I'd just draw a random Chocobo home?! Of _COURSE _I saw _it_!" Squall backed away as Cloudabo took the idea as a good one, squawking and backing up with his feathers ruffled.

"Uh, Yuffie, do you need to sit down?" Squall didn't know how to handle this. He grabbed the bridge of his nose and let loose a loud, annoyed sigh. Cloud should never had let the girl in, now she definitely knew too much and he knew that if he didn't tell her more, she would walk away numbly and perhaps do something stupid, like try and find out more herself. He just needed to give her enough details to keep her satisfied, and all of the secrets that had to be hidden would be safe.

"No, it's fine, really." Yuffie stared down at her hands and noticed that they were still shaking. Were hands supposed to shake? Yuffie always thought they were supposed to do hand-like things, like pick things up and hit things. Not shaking, shaking was a dance-like thing and everyone _knew_ hands just don't dance. "I just want answers! Which you seem to be fresh out of, fresh-a-dot of!"

Yuffie stumbled down into one of the red, leather love seats as Cloudabo's head made contact with her lower body, forcing her to sit down. She went down with a grunt, her eyes closing for a moment as she took a breath. When she reopened her eyes, Cloudabo's innocent gaze was matching hers harmlessly.

Squall stepped up and grabbed Cloudabo by the neck, forcing the large bird backwards. Cloudabo squawked indignantly, before ramming Squall in the chest. Squall grimaced, but hid it well, instead of trying to push the large bird back he stepped in front of it. "Go home, Yuffie. I'll take care of it from here."

"You're not getting out of this that easily," Yuffie growled lowly, narrowing her eyes deeply. Squall sighed once again, grabbing the bridge of his nose as he attempted to think of another way out of this situation. "So I'd suggestion you'd start with the talkin' and stop with the avoidin'."

"Fine." Squall stepped away and Cloudabo quickly trotted over in front of Yuffie, reaching his head out for her to pet. Squall watched in disgust as she did before he began talking. There was definitely no easy way to explain this. "So, as you can see, Cloud is a chocobo."

Scratching the back of Cloudabo's neck, much to his pleasure, Yuffie rolled her eyes skyward. "That pretty much explains the visual, here, Squallie- what I need now is the why, when, and _how_. They're all nice things to have."

Squall didn't appreciate the sarcasm.

Narrowing his eyes as Yuffie, he pulled his lip back much like an angry lion would. "Listen here, child-"

"-I'm not a child so _you_ listen here! I'm sick and tired of not knowing what's going on. Every single person tells me that I'm too much of a child to understand, but if you'd just give me a chance, a chance! I'd be able to show you so much friggen more!" Cloudabo pulled his head back and made a high pitched cry, ruffling his bright yellow feathers due to the tension.

"You are nothing more than a child," Squall hissed back with narrowed eyes. Yuffie immediately lost her edge and sunk into the loveseat, causing Cloudabo to narrow his once innocent eyes at the young man before him. "You prance around like this is just one big game. You have no idea what has been lost and you're just a tool, anyway." Squall sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose some more, before letting his arms fall, folded across his chest.

"Cloud's transformation is triggered by the full moon," Squall began after an awkward silence that had stretched far too long. "The moon pulls mako closer to the surface of a world and in turn, affects Cloud's body." Cloudabo stared at Squall every time the warrior mentioned his name, but then returned his attention to Yuffie, nudging her hand like a cat for affection.

"What's mako?" Yuffie tilted her head to the side impatiently, but partly glad that at least she was getting some sort of information from the stoic teenager.

"Life source of the planet, flows through only a couple of the worlds. Chocobos, in this world, have the highest potency of it, according to Merlin." Squall moved his head, causing his brown bangs to fall over his scar. Yuffie looked around wildly for the wizard whose name was just mentioned and sighed in relief when she, for once, didn't see him. "The full moon causes Cloud to transform, because it draws the life source out of him. Most months, however, Cloud has learned how to resist the transformation. It's only when something happens to make him lose all of his energy, like using a powerful attack… Or if for some reason he loses control of himself, like going unconscious. Also, if there's no moon light that night, he won't transform- but he will still feel disoriented. " Squall sent a look towards Cloudabo before he continued on. "I know what you're wondering and we don't know- we don't know what happened to make this happen, but he has been doing it for the last couple of years. It's only been now, like I said before, that he has gained some sense of control over it."

Yuffie looked thoughtful for a moment, before she spoke, pushing Cloudabo's large head away from her. "The first time I saw Cloud, as he is now, he was wearing a santa hat. Uh, just-ta-wondering what exactly that's about."

Squall smirked; the closest Yuffie had gotten him to laughing or smiling. "Let's just say he got a little bit tipsy that night."

Despite herself, Yuffie giggled at Squall saying 'tipsy' for a moment before she spoke. "Does he, er, remember anything going on?" Yuffie yelped as Cloudabo nudged his head into her own, causing her to be pushed back into the chair.

Grinding his teeth together, Squall grabbed Cloudabo by the trunk of the body and pulled the large bird back, being engulfed by feathers as he did fso. He pushed the large bird back as he took a deep breath, looking towards Yuffie. "No. He just does whatever feels good." Yuffie couldn't help feel a little bit dejected at not being special, but followed up with another question to divert her attention.

"Like fighting heartless?" at Squall's blank look, Yuffie continued. "The first time I met him, in this form, he fought of heartless for moi." Squall cleared his throat at this before speaking; keeping an eye on Cloudabo whom was once again trotting back over to Yuffie.

"Listen, kid," he didn't care that it made her mad; she deserved to be put in her place. "You need to go home now. You've had a long night." He didn't really care about the brat's emotional state, but he didn't want to come off as a total douchebag.

Yuffie nodded, for once agreeing easily with the stone-cold teenager. Standing up, she began walking out of the living room. Squall stepped in front of Cloudabo as he tried to follow, narrowing his eyes at the giant bird. "Don't even, you." Squall tried to push the large bird back, but had to pull his hands back quickly as Cloudabo attempted to bite his fingers. Turning with a growl, he watched Yuffie let herself out quietly.

When he was sure she was gone, Squall turned and glared at the giant chicken that was currently looking back at him, feathers ruffled. "You are going to be the death of me, Cloud."

"So, I see we're still leaving the girl out of the loop."

"KWEH!"

Cloudabo jumped back in utter surprise, feathers ruffled as he stared warily at Merlin who stood in the doorway, a serious expression on his face. Squall turned around and stared at the old wizard, feeling the challenge in the words, but not responding like he would to everyone else, which was disrespectfully.

Sighing, Squall spoke. "There's no choice. She can't know everything and there are definitely some things that bird brain over here needs to tell her, himself."

Merlin's eyes twinkled behind his glasses. "Bird brain? I believe you just made a joke, Leon!" grinning for a moment only, Merlin dropped his facial expression. "I digress. Certainly, Leon, you do realize that lying to her will only make things more difficult," he paused to stare at Cloudabo, whom was currently lying down in a corner, trying to rest while keeping a wary eye on the wizard. "I know you do not want this to be true, but Yuffie is a part of this now. I'd be sure to say, in fact, she may have been a part of this since the beginning, we were just far too late on the news." Merlin took his glasses off and cleaned them with an all knowing look. "There's the fact of the matter that the power of the heartless has been increasing steadily... And you need all the help you can get."

Squall glared quietly.

"But do not worry!" Merlin turned around merrily, grinning from ear to ear. "I will, as usual, stay out of your world's affairs!" with that he was gone, almost as if he had just phased out of reality. Squall sighed as his shoulders slumped. He turned towards Cloudabo before walking out of the room, only to return a few moments later with a spare set of clothing that Cloud had left here, just in case.

Cloud was going to be naked in the morning.

And angry.

Angry and very naked.

* * *

Yuffie woke up with a loud gasp, her body aching as her body arched. She shivered to herself, fumbling in her green sheets as she suddenly felt caged. Once her socked feet, as Yuffie could not sleep without socks, touched the cold, hard wood floor of her room she relaxed. The sudden cold reminded her that she was alive, that she was here and that dream of being chased by heartless, ripped apart by a giant black bird, was not in fact, well, fact.

Air flooded her lungs and she forced herself to begin getting ready for school. She remembered everything about last night and still, a tiny bit, felt like she was in shock. The way Cloud had screamed was still playing over and over in her mind, like a song you couldn't get out of your mind. But instead of a nice, entertaining beat, it was the screams of someone you had slowly been falling in love with.

She found herself ultra aware of her body, her bruises. Slowly and painfully with grunts, she put on her pants and shirt before putting on her vest-jacket. It was the end of February and Yuffie knew it was still cold, but she didn't bother putting on anything too heavy.

The cold reminded her that she was alive.

That cold was alive.

That she hadn't died when he had been screaming in pain, his body shifting and his flesh withering, his eyes so full of pain that Yuffie couldn't even find words to describe it.

Pain should never hurt that bad.

If it does, you should be dead by then.

* * *

"Yo! Chickenshit!"

Yuffie froze, slowly turning around to see Seifer. She'd forgotten about him, lost the memory of any causal friends in the sound of bones breaking. He didn't seem to notice the lost state of mind that she was in as he gave her a slight nod. "Haven't seen you around since you decided to opt out on drinking, lamer."

"Life happens," her response was causal, so causal that it appeared like she had managed to burn Seifer with her lack of caring. Realizing how she was acting, Yuffie pasted on a giant smile and winked at the smaller boy. "But at least I didn't get too drunk to not remember..." 'Com'on, make something up!' Yuffie thought to herself. " "Making out with that chick, ya'know, the one that hosted the party!"

Seifer paled considerably, Yuffie was pretty sure she could see the school announcement board through his face. "I didn't-Are you- oh shut up!" he snapped at Yuffie's giggling, not noticing how forced it was. "Well, at least she was a chick. I'd puke until I _died,_" faintly Yuffie remembered vomiting into the snow as Cloud screamed for his life to just _end_. "If I made out with Rai, or hell, even Pence."

Ignoring her mind's constant feedback of last night, Yuffie spoke with that big, phony plastered grin on her face. "Yuck. I'll tell you from my prospective, even as a member of the female race, I found both of those options unappealing."

Seifer grinned that cocky grin that Yuffie once found kinship in. "Listen, chickenshit. There's something else I wanted to talk to you about-there's a dance at the end of the next month, eh? I was wondering if you wanted to go with me."

Yuffie wiggled her eyebrows, but inside, she wondered how she was able to put up such an act. 'I'm the world's best actor, Yuffie. I can even pretend to be a hero, or even an adult!' she thought to herself bitterly, but hid her inner dialogue well. "Oh, Seifer, would you be asking me out on a date? I'm flattered, really!" Yuffie touched her hands to her heart and swooned, causing Seifer to narrow his eyebrows deeply.

He hid his blush well, bringing some colour back to his face. "I just don't want you to feel like a loser, saving you from the loser wall when the slow dance music comes on. It's what cool people like me do for lamers like you."

Yuffie laughed outrageously loud, before shaking her head, black bangs going whatever ever which way. "I'll think about it, chickenshit. Lamers like me sometimes have better things to do then dance with _lamers_ like you. But hey," Yuffie walked past Seifer and nudged him on the shoulder, causing him to stutter step to the left, silver trench coat sliding against the tile of the school floor. "Maybe Pence will dance with you, you won't even have to move, either, 'cause the gravitational pull will pull you which every way you need to go." Waving over her shoulder she laughed loudly, feeling that by putting him in his place, she had saved some face and also made herself feel better.

Until she crashed into something very hard and very solid.

She didn't stagger back, but instead found two hands gripping onto her sides. She froze up before opening her eyes, staring into blue ones. Those eyes sent a chill down her spine and she stepped back, causing the teen with that black, long trench coat to step forward cautiously.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered all of the times he had told her not to call him chocobo head.

Now she understood.

"Well, heyaSpikes." Yuffie took another step back. His face was stoic today, but she could see something underneath that hardened gaze. He remembered transforming in front of her, she could tell just by that guilt in his gaze. Somewhere along the way Yuffie had begun to understand Cloud's silent language. "You see, there's this funny thing that I have to go do, this thing called not being right here, with you. I'd invite you to come along, but unfortunately, this whole not being with you thing, kind of requires you not to be where I am, which means, that, of course, I can't invite you!"

"Yuffie," Cloud grunted, reaching out and grabbing her arm tightly and almost desperately. He pulled her back towards him and began walking; dragging her behind him in a manner that he had done a lot of the past couple of months.

Pushing and pulling, pushing and pulling.

Cloud wondered if someday, they could get beyond that.

He doubted it.

Yuffie allowed herself to be led like a dog until they got outside, where she ripped her arm back from Cloud's powerful grasp, causing him to turn. "You just ennnnjoy not explaining things to people, don't you? Or maybe it's just me. You have some sort of, don't explain things, fetish. Which explains way too much!"

"You don't exactly act mature enough to handle them." He bit back in his defense, feeling on edge. She should have never seen what she had seen last night, which was a part of him that he didn't believe she would ever be able to handle- she wasn't exactly proving him right now, either.

"Are you _STILL_ wahing about me going to that party?" Yuffie hissed with fire in her eyes like a viper. "I'm a liar and you're a giant chicken, I don't _really_ see who the bad guy is." Yuffie suddenly looked like she remembered something, but was merely overdramatizing the moment. "Oh that's right. The whole being a normal human being thing- you're not. I think your whole existence thing, yeah, that's pretty much a big lie."

"Well," Cloud defended himself, trying to keep the fight quiet so passing students wouldn't over hear. "I never actually said I _wasn't," _he paused to whisper the next word, not wanting anyone to hear it. "A chocobo."

Yuffie stared numbly.

Cloud stared back with no expression.

Yuffie suddenly laughed loudly, curling up as she grabbed her stomach. She laughed so hard that she began to cry, she laughed so hard that she was pretty sure she was going to die. Cloud just watched quietly the entire time, confused, but silent.

As Yuffie's laughter began to subside into gleeful giggles, she reached out a hand and rested it on Cloud's jacket. A smile inched its way onto her face like the morning sun, casting aside her fearful mood like rays of light. Cloud watched the transformation numbly as she finally regained herself fully, tears streaming down her face still, although the source had gone dry. "My god, Cloud. I think you actually made a joke. A joke! Like something that makes some sort of joy happen! I'm amazed," Yuffie grinned that grin that well, only she could grin. "I take full credit for this beautiful moment."

"I wasn't joking," Cloud argued back, mildly agitated. He didn't exactly like being laughed at and Yuffie was well, very good at doing what he didn't like. "You never did ask."

Silence.

Yuffie began laughing again.

Cloud stared on numbly.

Once Yuffie had regained herself, this time leaning her hand on his chest, she spoke. "That's even better. Thanks, Cloud." She grinned up at him, and Cloud decided that it was best to lose this fight for now. She wasn't exactly taking him seriously, anyway.

"About what you saw," he began, and Yuffie raised her hands to silence him.

"I passed out when you started oozing."

"Leon told me otherwise."

"I didn't actually pass out, then." Yuffie shrugged her shoulders indifferently. "I just wanted you to stop feeling so goddamn guilty all the time. I stayed around, it was my fault I saw it. You could have warned me better, but eh, so what, life happens, people die, children are born, and ice cream tastes delicious. Just the laws of the universe, Spikes."

Cloud smirked, his eyes coming to life for a moment before they went back to their usual pained expression, "Then I expect you'd know not to tell anyone about what you saw."

"Because I have friends to tell, that don't know about you." Yuffie grinned, spinning like a dancer in front of Cloud due to her usual hyperness. "I was perhaps the only person that didn't know, Spike-a-likes... But, I've gotta ask," Cloud froze, wondering if she knew something he really didn't want her to know, like how some days he found it so _goddamn_ hard to stay away from her. "Why were you so affectionate? I've never seen any wild chocobos do that, is there something you're hiding?" Yuffie leaned forward, that grin still on her face. "Well, something else, since you seem to be hiding the secret of life down there, somewhere."

Cloud coughed suddenly, turning his head as his body followed. "I don't know. I don't remember what happens when I'm like that. Maybe you smelt good?" he realized how odd that sounded. He quickly turned away, walking towards his motorcycle, and cursing himself internally. He was getting too comfortable with her- he was actually trying to construct something with her, something that was far too dangerous.

Yuffie blushed and was almost about to let him walk away before she yelled after him. "Heya, Spikes. I've got something I'd like you to do, to make up for all this crazy stuff, the whole making me puke all over the place thing. Put some normal stuff back into our lives, eh?"

Cloud turned around slowly, looking at her with half lidded eyes to show that he was listening. Yuffie grinned and leaned forward, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively as she tilted her head to the side.

"Go to the dance with me, eh?"

* * *

"You said yes?" Squall raised a thin eyebrow at the older teen, a grimace on his face. Cloud could be so goddamn stupid sometimes. "Do you even think?"

"I am capable of such things," Cloud bit back sarcastically, glaring at the younger male. Squall really needed to stop questioning him- at least he used his real name instead of cutting his last name in half. "And I didn't say yes."

"You said maybe," Squall turned and stared at the red and yellow dotted walls of Merlin's living room. For some reason, the wizard liked red. "Which is yes, for Yuffie, by the way."

"Whatever," Cloud shut down and Squall was about to rip into him viciously but the door opened, a yell coming with it. Speaking of the devil, the little spit fire, Yuffie stepped into the home with a guilty look coming over her face.

"So this week has been crazy," Yuffie began as she stepped into the living room, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. "So I kind of forgot to tell you this. It's not like it's my fault, though. You both pulled some crazy stunts and hell, I _was_ grounded and all that stuff, so…" she was rambling nervously, looking at her feet until she looked back up at the two.

Both males stared at her, quietly. This could be anything. They were trying to prepare themselves, too.

But that was impossible.

"At the party," she watched Cloud stiffen up. Did he ever forget? He held a grudge like a pregnant woman."Before you crashed it, Cloud... There wasn't just heartless, there was something else... Well, it was a heartless, but different... It was humanoid, and it could, well, it had a very lengthy and evil-y conversation with me about eating my heart."

Silence.

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Cloud's voice wasn't _exactly _angry, but more so confused, Yuffie's hopeful side even detected concern. "That's not exactly a _small_ detail, Yuffie."

"Because the kid has a one track mind." Squall bit out viciously, and Yuffie had to pull back, as if she had actually been bitten by a crocodile, or maybe even a lion. "What did she do?"

"Well, if Spikes didn't tell you," Yuffie strolled across the room and threw herself into the black leather loveseat. She knew that just last night, it was red, but things in this house change on a dime. Even less than that, they seemed to change on a nickel or penny. "There was a bucket load of heartless there. More so then I've ever seen.... Well, she kind of, summoned them. She really wanted to eat my heart, bad. But, I think…"

Cloud's fist clenched, which went unnoticed by Yuffie.

Squall noticed it and narrowed his eyes. "Well, it's good that Strife came and saved you, then." He grabbed the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "We should tell Merlin, this is the first time in... Well..." both him and Cloud appeared to be lost in thought. After a silence that Yuffie was about to break, Squall spoke. "Awhile."

"But that's the thing!" Yuffie suddenly stood up, arms being thrown into the air as both males watched her with raised eyebrows. "She ran away, I swear! She was all rawr, I'mma gonna eat you," Yuffie made a scary face as she lifted her arms up like a mock zombie. "Then she decides that hell, something's coming, or maybe she left her oven on, because then she goes _poof!_ It's like going to a café then deciding that hell, you're going to go back home after coming all this way just to read a book on knitting!"

"Hmhm, this is interesting."

Merlin appeared in front of Yuffie, causing her to jump back with a yelp and fall back into the fluffy, green sofa just behind her. She let her hands run across it with widened eyes- hadn't that just been a black leather chair? As Yuffie's heart began to stop beating so heavily, she listened to what Merlin was saying.

"-And Yufife, I suppose what you've seen is quite surprising," he stroked his long beard and shook his head. "I blame myself. I just didn't think such a thing would happen again, not so soon."

"What, well, what was _she_?" Yuffie tilted her head as she stressed her words carefully. "She was intelligent, responsive… If she hadn't left, she probably would have made good with her threat."

"No doubt in my mind, child, no doubt." Merlin twirled the end of his white, fluffy beard on his finger before continuing, a thought gaze on his features. "She was a more solid heartless. You see, dear, when someone loses their heart they usually become a lesser shadow. But sometimes, when someone loses their heart, they become something much more. They retain who they once were… But this usually only happens if they have a lot of hatred in their hearts."

Yuffie stayed quiet, reflecting. The girl had said that she would become something like her, if she lost her heart. Did Yuffie really have that much hatred in her heart?

Part of her, suddenly, wanted to. Because at least if a heartless took her, ate her alive, she would retain some sense of _self_.

"This," Merlin spoke again and stretched his arms up. "Would explain the increase of heartless strength. She's attracting the heartless here and they are more than happy to listen to her, considering her darkness. They'll feed on it and she'll keep supplying it."

"So what do we do then?" Yuffie asked quietly, staring at both boys from across the room. Cloud looked reflective, and for that matter, so did Squall. But Squall looked more angry than anything else and Cloud, well, Cloud appeared to be solemn and quiet, more so than usual. "Just wait until she comes back and kills us?"

"I just supply the information and the gear!" Merlin giggled to himself, throwing his arms up into the air as strange, shiny sparkles went up into the air. "It's your decisions that shape this world, and I allow you to do that!" and with that said, the sparkles engulfed him and he disappeared, leaving the three in silence.

"Cloud," Squall looked over at the older male and nodded. "You will be patrolling Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays." He spoke his words carefully, before looking towards Yuffie. "I will take Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. You," he gave her that look, that look that meant she couldn't challenge him on this. "Will be patrolling Sundays."

Yuffie pouted, eyebrows narrowed. "Excuse you? I can handle wayyy more days than that!" Yuffie crossed her arms over her chest, turning her head to the side. "They'll find me, anyway!"

Squall smirked, his brown bangs falling into his gaze. "Exactly. So you don't really need to patrol, if they'll already be coming towards you."

Yuffie's mouth hung opened for a moment. "Wait-wu-hey, that's not fair!" she pouted again, ticked off that her own logic had been used against her. Obviously with all of this distressing distractions going on, the great ninja was losing her supreme language manipulation skills.

She needed to regain them.

Squall's watch beeped and he pulled back his leather jacket to stare at it. Rolling his eyes skyward, he spoke. "I'm off," he stepped out of the room and then passed in the doorframe. "Don't forget- you see the girl, Cloud, you kill her- if you see the girl, Yuffie, you come running for help." With that he was gone, opening the door and slamming it behind him.

A silence.

There were a lot of them.

"Spikes," Yuffie suddenly turned to Cloud, and watched as he slowly turned his head to look at her. She sighed before speaking, trying to gain her confidence. But every time she made eye contact with those eyes, those eyes that she now knew were impossible for any normal man to have, she lost herself. She didn't want a normal man, anyway. "So I've got a question-in-for you. Don't worry," she paused as she watched him grimace. "I'm not going to ask you to a dance again."

Was he so upset that she asked him?

Yuffie decided not to dwell on it.

"Why did you do all that research for me?" Yuffie tilted her head to the side, stray, black bangs falling into her gaze and Cloud almost lost himself again. She was doing that more often now. Making him question his ability to keep his cool. "I mean, you could have let me fail."

"No, I couldn't." Cloud had always thought, in the back of his mind, if he got to know Yuffie he would stop liking her. That he would find her bratty, or annoying, or even just childish. She was those things, he knew- but by realizing her faults, he had begun to slowly appreciate her good qualities. Like her ability to always keep him on edge, to make him question what he was doing and if he was doing the right thing. "Knowing that I made you fail just to keep my secret."

"Oh, so it's another one of those guilt things." Yuffie grinned to herself and leaned back into the fuzzy sofa, resting her hands on her face as she closed her eyes. "Well, guilt-complex-forced or not, I just wanted to say, ya'know, that thing that people say, when, they feel… This kind of feeling that's soft and squishy inside when someone does something, kind of, nice." Yuffie took a deep breath, realizing she was rambling again. "Er, thanks."

Cloud smiled softly, although it was only for a moment and Yuffie's eyes were both closed and covered, thus rendering her unable to see such a sight. If she could see it, she would have seen his entire face light up like never before. A rare moment. "You're welcome, Yuffie."

"You some give me more things to say thanks for, Spikes." Yuffie pulled her arms over her head as she stood up, lacing her fingers as she stretched out her back with a yawn. With her back to Cloud, she let her arms drop lazily before she turned to face him. He watched her like a predator would, knowing Yuffie's sneaky tone of voice now.

She walked towards him, resting her hands on his bent knees. With a loose grin, she tilted her head to the side. Cloud continued to watch, his blue eyes staring intensely into her own. "You're not a bad guy, Cloud." She leaned her forehead against his own and he pulled back a bit, trying to get away, but finding it hard to escape, considering that part of him didn't want to.

Cloud could feel her breath on his lips and he stiffened, trying to tell his body to push her away. So far, it wasn't really working. Was she going to… No, she wasn't that stupid, that reckless. Kissing him would be far too dangerous and even too bold, even for the young ninja. "Thanks." She leaned back and moved off of him, and for some reason he felt disappointed. He needed to stop thinking like this- she was a poison and she knew it.

With an evil giggle she skipped off out of Merlin's home, leaving the WereChocobo to his own, dark thoughts.

* * *

Hmhm. Do you wanna know how I write a chapter.  
1. Have an idea for a beginning.  
2. Begin writing.  
3. Get stuck, throw in another character.  
4. Enjoy results.  
5. Mix until smooth.  
6. Take out another character.  
7. Add another character.  
8. Repeat process.

That's pretty much how I do it.

Here's a question- who do you enjoy the most in this fanfic;  
Seifer, The Banshee, Yuffie, Cloud, Squall, Cid, or Merlin.  
and tell me why, please!  
(by enjoy, who entertains you the most, ect, ect.)

Also, what do you guys want more of? More school involvement, more FF stuff, or more heartless/KH stuff?

See you later,

Sponge!

Almost forgot the previews!

_"She will die."_

"_That's self doubt, fear, insecurity. It eats up everything inside of you, doesn't it?" _

"_Okay, okay, that was stupid of me to think! Just don't kill me!"_

"_Looks like you've gotten infected."_

By the way, does anyone like the previews? Should I stop doing them?


	17. Chapter XVII

I had a bit of delay on putting this up, computer acting weird an all. How everyone was easter? I hope you enjoyed it.

Spongster is a much better holiday.

Not as tasty, though.

Enjoy what I've cooked up for you, this time!

Thanks are usual to my beta reader, my normal readers, and my reviewers!

* * *

**C**_H_**A**_**P**_T**E**_**R**_**X**_VI__**I**_

_**Yellow Haze**_

Yuffie loved flirting with danger.

Especially when danger's name was really Cloud, and he happened to be really cute.

This was why she was currently still standing on Merlin's front steps, her chin tipped up towards the sky as she had her eyes half lidded, a pleased smile on her lips. She stood on the tips of her toes, as if trying to increase how close she was to the sky.

She tried to contain the adrenaline rush that was currently pumping through her veins, but it was hard. She had just wanted to see how much of a reaction she could get out of Cloud. She didn't know what to expect, but she definitely hadn't expected Cloud to just sit there, watching her.

Almost waiting for her, too.

'No,' the high wore off and her shoulders fell, a sigh erupting from her lips as all the air shoved its way out of her lungs. 'You and me,' Yuffie wasn't too sure who 'me' was, exactly. 'Both know that Cloud wouldn't like you. You're not an adult,' Yuffie looked back to the house, whimsically. 'Not like he is, not even like how Squall is.'

Jumping off of Merlin's front steps, she landed on the pavement soundlessly as she began walking home, feeling sour. Did she want to make a move on Cloud? Yes, she couldn't deny it, she had a colossal crush on him. Did she have any chances of surviving making a move on him? Well, she had almost made a move on him before and gotten a lot farther than she'd expected, so that was debatable. But, the big question was- did he like her back?

She knew the answer to that one, almost instinctively.

The sky was blue, two plus two equaled four, water was wet, and Cloud Strife did not have a colossal crush on Yuffie Kisaragi.

'Hell,' Yuffie thought bitterly, sticking her lip out as she kicked a empty pop can across the sidewalk, watching it bounce twice before rolling to a stop. 'Cloud probably can't even stand to be in the same room as me.'

* * *

Cloud Strife could not stand to be in the same room as Yuffie Kisaragi.

There were some things about being a werechocobo that had their advantages. Liking Yuffie Kisaragi was not one of them. He could sense her, _feel_ her, and even _smell_ her. When it got closer to a full moon, Cloud could feel his mind become panicky and wild like a chocobo's. His mind began focusing on simple things, run, Yuffie, food, Yuffie, and, most importantly, Yuffie.

He clenched his fists before sighing heavily. Standing up, he strolled across the room until he got to the front door. He was about to grab the cold, golden metal of the door handle when his chocobo senses began acting up again. He could sense a shift in space.

"Merlin," he called calmly. He knew enough about his chocobo form that when such things happened, the first instinct was to panic. He was glad he had common sense in this form. "What's the trouble?" he did not turn around to greet him, however.

Merlin's voice rang loud and proud in the quiet house. "You need to make up your mind, Cloud, my boy. Do you want her in your life or do you want her out?"

Cloud rested his head against the door and let his eyes close, a sigh escaping from his lips. He just wanted her to be _safe_ and alive to live her life. He didn't want to see her die, not after everything he had been through and especially not after how close he had gotten to her.

Merlin sighed, taking off his glasses and cleaning them. Cloud could hear the squeaking of cloth against glass. "Because Cloud, if you do not make a choice, the universe will make it for you."

"I know," Cloud growled as his eyes narrowed deeper. His shoulders slumping as he rested his arms against the door he couldn't ignore the feeling of weakness he felt. Merlin had away of breaking people down, making them vulnerable. "You don't need to tell me."

"Apparently," Merlin replied back, placing his glasses back on his face. "I do, because you don't seem to get it. If you push her away, now that she's this engraved in your world," Merlin paused, watching Cloud tense up with every word he spoke. "She will die."

Cloud's eyes snapped open.

* * *

Yuffie paused suddenly, three blocks away from her home. The hair on the back of her neck was rising, the air heavy now. She knew this feeling and knew it well now, knew it better then any feeling she should have felt. Heartless were coming. She stared in front of her and saw darkness, the shadows of buildings oozing off into a giant pile in front of her.

She could run back to Merlin's, she knew she could. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that she couldn't beat whatever was being summoned, not by herself.

The hair rose on the back of her neck, even higher as a chill ran down her spin. "Don't try and run, love." Yuffie turned around slowly and saw _her_, the heartless woman from before and felt her mouth hang open. Without even thinking, merely reacting, she dove to the side and began running to her left, running towards the more rural part of town.

"Hmhm," the heartless woman punched her hand into her palm, flicking her head back as her bangs bounced. "I was hoping she'd put up more of a fight than try and run away. Maybe if I corner her like a rat, she'll fight back."

* * *

"Your fear will kill her, boy." Merlin turned around and began walking away, leaving Cloud's stiff body to lean against the door. "I'm only intervening for the girl's sake; anyway, it's hard to find a girl with that kind of humor in this universe!"

Cloud felt him leave the room in the same manner Merlin usually did, which was disappearing. Once he was gone, Cloud noticed a dark, repugnant feeling in the pit of his stomach. The chocobo side of him was ultra sensitive to heartless activity, and he could feel them now, ripping through the fabric of this world. He ripped open the door, almost off of its hinges and quickly walked to Fenrir, his coat rippling up and down as he did.

Jumping onto his motorcycle he took a sniff of the air, smelling the darkness. He hated this side of himself, but it gave him a lot of perks, especially when it came to slaughtering the beasts that had made him such a monster in the first place. Hastily he put his goggles on, hating the sensation of wind piercing his eyes. Kicking his bike's kickstand he revved the engine and was off down the street, the wind resistance forcing his hair back wildly.

* * *

Yuffie grabbed the storm drain of someone's house and quickly began climbing it like a monkey, gaining ground between her and the heartless. She swung herself up and grabbed the house's roof before reaching with her other hand and pulling herself up, teeth clenching before she rolled on top of the building.

Standing up, she dusted off her knees only to look up and snap her eyes open.

"Did you really expect to get away?" the woman smiled at her, showing off surprisingly white teeth. Despite the woman's beauty, it definitely didn't made the situation any less scary. "I'll hunt you until I kill-"

The heartless woman staggered back as a kunai hit her directly in the forehead, causing black goo to shoot out as her head lolled back for a moment. Staggering backwards she crouched over, growling before she reached up with a gloved hand and ripped it out, more black goo oozing out. Wiping the ooze on her silver trench coat, she threw the blade to her side before looking up at Yuffie, a dark glare on her features as more black gunk bubbled its way out, dripping down the woman's chin.

Yuffie stood in a battle stance now, her Rising Sun in front of her. She had weapons on her at all times now, and even managed to hide her Rising Sun against her back, underneath her shirt. She had been caught off guard at The Banshee's party, and she refused to ever be caught off guard again. "You were saying?" Yuffie smirked, bangs falling into her gaze. "I'm not a great ninja for nothing, nyuck."

"Great Ninja?" the woman stood tall and laughed menacingly, and Yuffie felt self doubt sneak its way into her belly. "You are such a silly, little girl. You're just playing dress up, pretending to be a big, whittle girl when you're nothing more than a child."

Yuffie tried to keep herself confident, but the woman's words were beginning to put self doubt in her. Her shoulders began to slump as tension made its way into her body, like a slippery snake. Maybe the woman was right… She was just a child.

'No!' somewhere, Yuffie was pretesting against her body's willingness to give up, her mind's betrayal of the cause. But it was distant and part of Yuffie thought it was unimportant.

The heartless woman saw Yuffie begin to listen to her and smiled, darkness already reforming her forehead piece by piece. "That's right, child. Do you feel that inside of you?" Yuffie looked up and felt herself in a daze. "That's self doubt, fear, insecurity. It eats up everything inside of you, doesn't it?"

Suddenly, Yuffie found herself again, hidden in the haze of the woman's vindictive words. Shaking her head back and forth like a wet dog, she threw her Rising Sun at the woman. The woman stepped back and brought up her gloves, surprised when the Rising Sun cut through it and kept going.

Yuffie caught it in one hand when it returned to her like a boomerang, narrowing her eyes deeply as she stared at the woman. The heartless woman laughed as more goo dripped down from her cuts, causing her to shake her head back and forth. Staring at Yuffie with those powerful, dark yellow eyes she spoke, Yuffie doing her best to ignore her words.

"You can try to resist the darkness," the woman cooed, sending shivers down Yuffie's spine. "For now, at least." The woman charged forward and Yuffie quickly brought up her Rising Sun, attempting to block the punch. The punch shook her body by the force, causing Yuffie to side step to try and divert the energy. The woman smirked before punching the ground, causing the entire building to shake.

Yuffie yelped in surprised and staggered back, off balance for a moment. This moment, however, was long enough for the woman to gain the advantage and she leapt forward, bringing up her knee and kneeing Yuffie in the stomach. Yuffie's head flew back as she let out a choked gasp, struggling to get the air back into her lungs that the woman had knocked out. She failed, and the woman continued with her assault, bringing across a haymaker.

The woman's knuckles connected to Yuffie's lower jaw, sending her through the air. The woman gave a battle shout before leaping into the air above her, spinning and making eye contact before delivering a devastating axe kick to Yuffie's stomach, sending her spiraling down into the pavement faster than the human eye could naturally process.

The woman landed on the edge of the building and smirked, feeling the building shake by the force of Yuffie's crash. Smoke and dust rose up in to the air from the broken pavement, before she jumped off and landed on the ground. The woman landed in a crouched posture, her silver trench coat fluttering up above her as she stood up straight, dusting off her gloved knuckles.

The dust cleared and Yuffie's body was bent unnaturally, cuts on almost every part of her body as her clothing was ripped. Yuffie was damaged, beaten badly and the woman hadn't really done anything yet. The heartless woman didn't try to hide her disappointment.

"Aw, don't tell me you're broken already." Yuffie let out a struggled gasp, more blood pouring out of her mouth as she forced herself to stand. She wobbled back and forth, feeling unsteady as she leaned forward. "Great! Let's have some more fun!" the woman exclaimed in utter delight.

Yuffie pulled out a kunai and threw it at the woman, who caught it in a gloved hand easily this time. Chuckling, she threw it over her shoulder and took a menacing step forward, causing Yuffie to take a step backwards, too. However, the younger girl lost her footing and fell back, landing onto her back with a groan.

"I was really hoping you would be able to play more," the woman laughed darkly, picking Yuffie up by the hair. Yuffie let out a gasp of pain and tried to free herself from the woman's gloved hands, but her prying was in vain, as she no longer had any real strength. "It seems your heart is stronger than your body. Oh well!" the woman swung her entire body out, swinging Yuffie in a circle. She spun around until she built up enough speed before she side stepped, bringing all of her force into slamming Yuffie into the building next to them.

Yuffie screamed in agony as her body broke, the building cracking and shaking from the power this woman possessed. Yuffie felt her world becoming black, bleak. When the heartless woman raised her into the air and then slammed her into the pavement, causing the pavement to crack, Yuffie no longer felt it. It felt distant, as if she was experiencing the pain in a dream. She was aware of every bone in her body breaking again, blood coming out of her mouth, but it wasn't real. It was muted, diluted somehow.

It was like she was…

In a haze.

The woman lifted Yuffie up again, making eye contact with the young, bloody girl. Blood dripped down her entire body, onto the pavement. Yet Yuffie's eyes remained open and she matched the gaze of the heartless, staring into those crazed, yellow eyes. Those eyes narrowed deeply, causing Yuffie to reply with a bloody smirk. "You act like someone is going to save you," The woman punched Yuffie in the gut, causing her to give a struggled grunt, coughing up more blood. "This isn't some fairy tale, little girl. No one comes and saves you; no one stops the big, bad, wolf from tearing you apart. You're alone."

"Cloud…" Yuffie coughed out, her world going black as the pain over took her.

Looking back on this moment, Yuffie would think she was a sap.

* * *

Cloud had been too late.

That's all he could think about when he pushed past the person calling for help on their cell phone. The person tried to stop him as he loaded Yuffie into his arms, slinging her lifeless form into his arms before he stormed past the concerned citizen.

They tried to stop him.

He paid them no mind, instead getting onto the bike and holding Yuffie tight to him, feeling her blood covered head rest against his chest lifelessly. She was small and broken in his arms and it filled Cloud with something he couldn't describe. She still smelt like her, but she had been touched by darkness and he could feel it, taste it. He could smell her blood, too, and it clouded his mind.

He brought her back to Merlin's and broke down the door to get her into the house. He didn't care about what anyone thought about him, not right now. She was dying, or perhaps was even _dead_ and he hadn't been able to stop it.

He had too much blood on his hands.

He placed her onto the couch with a grunt and began casting every spell he knew, every form of life and every form of cure he knew. He didn't know much white magic and he knew right now, right now at this very moment, it was making this situation a lot worse.

He shouted for Merlin but the old man didn't come.

He was alone.

He was ripped from his dark, painful thoughts when Yuffie's body gave a lurch. His eyes widened and he watched her struggle to breath, before leaning forward and coughing up the left over gunk in her lungs. Cloud felt his entire body flood with relief and if he was the type of person, he probably would have scooped her up into his arms then and there.

He showed none of this on his face, however, as it was completely stoic.

But he felt it, and somewhere, he knew that was all that mattered.

"Argh," Yuffie could barely talk, her tongue felt like rubber and she had the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. "I feel like I just got hit by a mac truck." She rubbed her head with her hand and leaned back against the pillow. "This wouldn't be the first time you saved me, Cloud."

Cloud gave a half smile, which she didn't see as she had already closed her eyes. "So, you're probably wondering what happened, but are too much of a Cloud to ask." Yuffie mumbled to herself, wondering if someone could possibly feel this bad. She felt her body and in the back of her mind, she kind of wished Cloud had left her to die.

She had been painless, then.

"Correct." Cloud responded quietly. It couldn't have been a heartless attack- she was completely out in the open and her body had been cold when he had found her. She would have been devoured, torn apart, if the heartless had gotten to her.

He wouldn't have found the body.

"It was that female heartless," Cloud's eyebrows widened. Then why was Yuffie still alive? "I don't know.. She had me, well, she had me dead. She's," Yuffie groaned in pain and something pulled at Cloud's heart, something he didn't like. "She's different. She didn't want to kill me; she wanted to torture me… She made me feel like there was nothing left to hold onto, and I almost believed her." Yuffie didn't have the courage to tell him the last thing she had said was his name. She'd done it on impulse.

Cloud remained silent, thinking about the events that had led him up to this moment. He hadn't seen a humanoid heartless since the very first time the heartless had come, and back then, he had no idea that it was a heartless… Only that he was vicious and unstoppable.

"You'll recover," Cloud bit this out, forced this out. He didn't think everything was okay, but that was his way of saying so. "Next time, run away."

"I did, Cloud." Cloud froze at his name being spoken, staring at the resting form of the young woman before him. "But she hunted me down like an animal. I couldn't escape her, nothing mattered, but destroying me." Yuffie was giving up, giving up like… Like he had. "There's nothing I can do. She'll keep coming back, Cloud. She'll keep coming back."

"Stop that," Cloud almost snarled back at her, causing Yuffie to jump. His eyes were passionate, and that was something she hadn't seen in awhile. "You're just beginning to realize what this is- it's not a game, is it? They can take everything from you."

"You're right," Yuffie laughed bitterly, tasting dried blood on her lips. "You're right. I'm just a kid; I don't know what any of this is. I'm so, so stupid." Yuffie rested her head back, staring at the white ceiling of Merlin's living room. Even in her depressed state, she admired his ability to change everything in his house around. Or did the house do it, by itself? She wasn't sure. "But it's too late; I already signed my name on the dotted line. I'm in this until I die which maybe soon, all facts considering."

"I won't let you die." It came out so fast that Cloud didn't even have time to think about it. It was too personal, too raw, and definitely too much information.

"Wha-" Yuffie didn't even get a chance to ask her question, as Merlin had appeared directly behind Cloud, almost giving her a heart attack. She twitched, causing her entire body to lurch in pain. Cloud didn't react, instead just giving a half look over his shoulder at the upset looking wizard.

"Looks like you've gotten infected." Both her and Cloud looked panicked, his words making it sound like she was about to turn into a heartless any second. "It's nothing too worry about, children. When you get near a powerful heartless, they drain all the hope right out of you. Any self doubt, any fear, any hatred… They feed off of that, make you feel more of it." Cloud, you watch her, while…" he trailed off, stroking his beard. "Cid was it? While I tinker with Cid's memories, so he thinks she will be staying the night over here."

The air rippled and Merlin was gone.

"He can do that?" Yuffie mumbled to herself, eyes half lidded. "That would have made my life a lot easier if he'd told me before, ny-" Yuffie tried to laugh, but when she did, her entire body shook and withered in unbelievable pain. Cloud watched helplessly.

"Spike-a-doos," Cloud wondered if there would ever be an end to the stupid names she called him. "Can I ask you something, something a bit personal?" when Cloud nodded his head slowly, she continued. "What's it like, to ya'know, go all fluffy, giant chicken on us?"

Cloud stayed silent for a moment, before speaking. "It's like… Being in a yellow haze. Everything is covered in yellow, and you're blinded by it, everything is so bright." He smiled to himself, and Yuffie almost died there, but let him continued. "The things that you enjoy… The things you enjoy being around… They're so much more then they usually are. Warmth, when you are happy, you can grasp onto it and it feels amazing." He was opening up to her and Yuffie felt herself grow scared. Cloud shouldn't be talking this much. "But when you see darkness, you experience it so much more… You see it for what it truly is."

"What's that?" Yuffie asked weakly, trying to tilt her head to the side, but finding that her neck hurt way too much to do such a thing.

"The absence of light."

* * *

Yuffie's body was healing slowly but surely, the bones resettling. Merlin had given her a couple of potions that dulled the pain and sprang her back from the dead, but it still didn't stop the little things, like her broken rib cage, from hurting. Merlin had told her that she couldn't go patrolling and also assigned either Squall or Cloud to look after her, see to it that she got from point A to point B safely.

As every day passed, she noticed more about Cloud. She didn't care that he turned into a giant chocobo, she found herself attracted to him. The way he stood, stoic against the world, staring at the face of death and despair unmoving… He was powerful, potent. The way he walked was flawless. She walked like a gorilla in comparison to his wolf like gait, the walk of a predator.

And he was just _so_ hot.

Yuffie walked slowly, with a limp, to her English class. She had five minutes until the bell rang, but she always tried to head there as quickly as possible now. The hallway was full and she found it hard to push her way through, thus she just let the stream of students carry her.

"Hey, Lamer." Yuffie rolled her eyes skyward as Seifer nudged his way next to her. "Are you alright? You look like you got your ass _beat_."

"Ha!" Yuffie stood tall, beaming. She winced however as the sudden movement made her ribcage growl in pain. Covering it up with a grin, she continued. "I'm a great ninja, not some prissy little girl! I'll have you know, if someone got beat, it was whoever was trying to beat me up!" she really hoped that heartless woman wasn't somewhere, listening.

And mad because she was lying through her teeth.

Seifer smirked, putting his hands on his hips. "I like you, Yuffie, you've got something a lot of these chicken shits don't have." He threw back his head and gave a smirk that showed off his teeth a bit, kind of a snarl even. "Have you thought about the dance at all?"

"Honestly?" Yuffie tilted her head to the side, trying to ignore the burning pain of her neck. "Notatall," he didn't quite catch what she said, which was good. "But, I don't know if I want to go with just one person… That's too, boyfriend-y-girlfriend-y for me." She poked her fingers together sheepishly.

"Let me guess," Seifer looked offended, giving her a piercing gaze that she did her best to hide from. "You're going out with Strife, then? I didn't think Cloud would have much interest in going to the dance-"

"Who's going to the dance with Cloud?" both Seifer and Yuffie winced at the sound of that voice.

By now, the hallways had cleared a bit, leaving room for the three to stand easily and talk.

Well, get yelled at.

Yuffie stared at The Banshee before quickly covering up her tracks. "Um, we're not sure," this was her chance, her chance to get the information she had been wondering about, quietly, in the back of her mind for the past couple of months. "A lot of girls are upset about his past."

Seifer gave Yuffie an unsure look, but The Banshee didn't notice. "Yeah, I know. I mean, having someone you care about dying… I mean, it's pretty big, but still, people die, and he should get over it. I know he looooved her, and everything… But I've loved a lot people, and you don't see me crying about it when they've left me."

_What_?

Everything went on mute. Somewhere, Yuffie heard Seifer scolding The Banshee for being stupid, but Yuffie didn't care.

Cloud… Girl.. Someone dying….

Yuffie's mind couldn't put all of the information together and she staggered back, resting her back against the school wall. Locker doors slammed shut in the distance, but it sounded like it was miles away, not almost directly in front of her. She heard Seifer say goodbye, and she waved a hand, but it wasn't really her doing it- she was somewhere else, trying to grasp onto everything she had heard.

Did…

Did Cloud kill her?

Did Cloud kill the woman he loved?

Well, Yuffie knew in the back of her mind, that back then they must have been a lot younger. What if he was just coming into his were chocobo powers, and something went _wrong_? What if this whole, WereChocobo thing wasn't that innocent?

Yuffie's eyes stayed widened as she heard, somewhere, the sound of a bell ringing.

Cloud was a killer!

Cloud was a neon yellow, feathery, killer!

That was his curse. That was why he was so emo all the time. He had _killed_ the girl he had _loved_ and would never be able to forgive himself!

This explained so much.

"Yuffie."

Said girl jumped up and yelped when she saw the WereChocobo that she had just been thinking so heavily about. She took a cautious step backwards as she watched him like a cornered cat, afraid he was going to peck her to death at any moment. He raised a thin eyebrow and Yuffie jumped again, too afraid to even feel the pain in her body.

"Shouldn't you be in class?" he asked quietly, giving her that stern look that suddenly looked so much murderous then it had before- and it had _really_ looked murderous before. Yuffie was sure she needed to invent a new word to describe how murderous it looked now!

"Yeah, class! That thing, that, yah, I should be doing!" Yuffie laughed awkwardly and staggered back, only to begin falling. Cloud reached forward and Yuffie began panicking, struggling against his grasp as he tried to secure her. "Oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god!" she started to hyperventilate, shaking from utter terror.

"What's wrong?" Cloud asked, trying to keep his voice steady as Yuffie struggled roughly, much like a pet cat would. She wasn't right and Cloud was beginning to feel worry ripple inside of him. She shook the more he tried to restraint her, but he wasn't sure what else he could do.

Cloud growled in pain as Yuffie stomped on his foot and then bit him. She then attempted to run away, but he grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her up, making eye contact with those terrified eyes. She stopped, like a dear in head lights. "What the _hell_ is wrong with you?" she better start speaking fast, or else Cloud was just going to knock her out and take her home.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Cloud knew that was rather cave-man like.

"You're a murderer!" Yuffie growled out and Cloud almost dropped her in shock. "Stone, cold blooded, killer! Lemme go, lemme go!" Yuffie began thrashing again as Cloud stared at her in utter confusion. Did she hit her head, or something?

"What the hell are you going on about, Yuffie?" Cloud growled, his eyes blazing. She was talking utter nonsense… She was talking the same as his mind did when he woke up and before he went to bed at night, reminding him of the past.

"I know about your past now!" Yuffie was yelling and classes were going on right now. He needed to get her out of here before she got them in trouble, or said something she shouldn't. "That girl you loved, the fact that she died and _you_ kill-"

Yuffie was dropped onto the ground while Cloud used his free hand to cram her mouth shut. His eyes blazed, and Yuffie felt more scared then before. "That's _not_ what happened," he whispered darkly, and Yuffie had to do her best to hold her ground. "Who told you _that_ I _killed_ someone?"

Er.

Yuffie began blushing brightly and Cloud knew enough about her to know what that meant. She began laughing sheepishly, looking more embarrassed by the second. "Well, no one, but they told me enough and I, er, kind of filled in the blanks, cause I, er, didn't have much infor-ma-tion-toohgod."

Cloud stared blanky.

Yuffie stared back, awkwardly and growing redder by the second.

"Com'on! It's not that ridiculous of a thing to think! I mean, you being all rawr!" Cloud's eyebrows were slowly beginning to narrow, and like a pot of boiling water his anger was raising. "Okay, okay, that was stupid of me to think! Just don't kill me!" Yuffie waved her hands back and forth wildly, almost looking like a chicken trying to take flight.

Cloud rested his forehead in his hand, trying to regain some sense of self. Her fear of him put him on edge. He really didn't care about anyone in this world, and out of the few people he did care about, Yuffie unfortunately happened to be one of them. Thus, seeing her afraid of him wasn't something he was happy to see. "Yuffie, I'm not going to kill you." His annoyance seeped through his words.

The tone didn't really help his case.

However, Yuffie allowed herself to relax, breathing a loud and dramatic sigh of relief. However, questions arose in her mind that she couldn't help but voice. "Er, Cloudie. Now I've gotta know- what _did_ happen to you, all those years ago?"

Cloud looked like he wanted to attack, rip her apart for asking that question for a moment. Yuffie instinctively stepped backwards, eyebrows shooting up. Cloud almost instantly regained his façade and began speaking once more. "I let someone down," Cloud turned his attention to the side, his chin and head turning away from Yuffie. "I let someone…" he trailed off and suddenly shut down, his body language becoming cold. "Get to class." With that he stepped back and turned away from Yuffie, causing her eyebrows to narrow.

However, suddenly a big, child-like grin plastered itself onto Yuffie's face. "You'll never let me down, Cloud!" she practically yelled down the hallway to him, causing him to freeze. She was trying to hide the blush on her cheeks, but it was near impossible. "No matter what happens… You won't let me down, okay?"

Cloud froze and turned his head, his chin hiding behind his leather jacket. He looked distant for awhile, before his tone became bitter when he spoke. "That's what she said, too." With a defeated posture he walked away from her, leaving Yuffie alone in the hallway.

* * *

Yuffie stood in the training area of Merlin's home, leaning on the wall as she tried to maintain her balance. Focus, she needed to focus. Closing her eyes she leaned forward off of the wall, trying to feel the aliveness in her body. She was supposed to be trying to find the energy, the magic in her blood that would let her perform spells.

She wasn't finding anything.

It had been a week since her encounter with Cloud, and as usual, he had begun avoiding her again. Hell, she'd even tried to seek him out- but it was like he knew where she was before she got there, always one step ahead of her.

'I'm thinking again,' Yuffie frowned with her eyes closed, sighing. She wanted to use magic like both Squall and Cloud did. Summoning a giant fire ball would be _awesome_, so awesome. Shaking her head again, she tried to regain her focus, but just couldn't.

Yuffie suddenly felt someone in front of her and her eyes snapped open, seeing the form of Cloud. He was only wearing his black turtle neck, his trench coat more likely than not on the coat hanger by the front door. He looked at her and she froze, wondering why he was suddenly before her. He gave her a look that she, for the first time in about a month, couldn't read before speaking.

"You're doing it wrong," Cloud began instructing, lifting up one hand. He tore off his leather glove with his other hand to reveal soft looking flesh. For some reason, Yuffie had been expecting rough, coal miner hands. The gloves must have protected him. "You need to breathe." Yuffie watched in amazement as he wiggled his fingers and moved his hands, blue pieces of energy gathering in the palm of his hands before they stiffened with a sound Yuffie couldn't quite place- like glass breaking. Cloud now held a large piece of ice in his palm, which he shattered by closing his hand into a fist.

Well, it was hard to relax for Yuffie, considering who was in front of her.

"Okay-dokey. You make it look a lot simpler then it is, Cloudie." Taking a deep breath Yuffie tried to relax all of the tension out of her body. She felt her nerves twitch in her arms as she tried to move something; she wasn't sure what, towards it. The two stood in silence, the only sounds being their breathing as they waited.

Suddenly Yuffie's arm lurched and she gasped, opening her eyes to watch some sort of green energy ripple for a moment. It wasn't as graceful as Cloud's blue glow, instead of sparkling it appeared to be oozing more so then anything else. But Yuffie soon lost it again, and the energy disappeared much to her own frustration.

"Argh," Yuffie threw her head back and Cloud smirked to himself, knowing that she would just get frustrated at anything he said. "Whatever, I give up for now!" pouting, she threw herself down onto one of the leather benches, breathing heavily as her eyebrows were still knotted infrustration.

Cloud sat next to her, remaining silent.

Something wiggled in the back of Yuffie's mind and she grinned awkwardly. The dance! Had he…? It was only a week and a half away now, and Yuffie hated to admit to herself that she kind of… Really wanted to go, badly. The worst part was she didn't even want to just _go_ she wanted to go with Cloud, the winner of most stoic man in the universe award.

Yuffie even had the Banshee's words replaying in her mind. Cloud had _loved_ someone before, loved them with everything they had. Cloud wasn't over them, either, she could tell. Thus Yuffie was a fool, for thinking that Cloud would ever find anything interesting about her.

'But he _had_ said maybe, right?' Yuffie thought hopefully, sending a side glance to the man of her thoughts, who still sat quietly next to her. 'That's pretty much yes to me, hmhm.' Yuffie looked to Cloud fully, before looking in front of her and speaking.

"So," she started out of the blue and she found her voice sounded so _loud_ in contrast to the silence they had just been sharing. "Been thinking about what I asked you?"

Cloud froze, although he didn't show it on his face. What _had_ she asked him? She asked him a million questions a day, practically! He felt stupid for not wanting her to think that he didn't listen to her, but part of him, the human part of him or maybe the chocobo part of him, felt the need to make sure she _felt_ okay. In his mixed emotions and thoughts, he remained silent.

"Guess not?" Yuffie hid her disappointment well, plastering on a big, cheery grin like a mail stamp. "Let me remind you, er…" she had managed to spit it out so easily before, but somehow this felt more serious, more real. "Iwas… er.. I was wondering if you wanted to come to the dance with me, I mean…" she trailed off suddenly and her grin became real. Placing her arms behind her head, she continued. "I'll be dragging you to the dance anyway, so you might as well come with me, so I can defend yourself from all those grabby hands wanting to dance with you."

Cloud smirked and turned his head the other way. She was doing that _thing_ again. That thing that told him she wasn't just a stand in for his affection, that _thing_ that was hers and hers alone. He hadn't found a name for it yet, but it was part of the essence that was Yuffie. "Yuffie." He replied to her long rambled question, the same way he'd responded before. "You are aware what night that dance is on."

She raked her mind and tried to bring up a mental image of her calendar. When she counted down the days and realized what day of March it would fall upon, she couldn't help but laugh at her stupidity. She had thought, for just one moment, that she could have normality. She should really learn how to just give up on those things. "Of course, a full moon. Those full moons always seem to be on the worst day, eh?"

Silence, the usual kind that the two of them shared.

Yuffie laughed bitterly to herself and stood up, stretching out as she turned to face Cloud. "Because you see, I have this problem that I don't think I can fix easily." She began talking and Cloud perked up, listening to her words intently. "And you see, my problem is _you_. I _like_ you a lot, Cloud." Cloud was about to open to speak, but Yuffie silenced him by continuing. "And my problem is well, Cloud. You don't like me, and that's fine, I don't really expect you to like me back or anything like that,"

"But!" Yuffie laughed and shook her head back and forth. "I don't think I can go on pretending that I don't think really, _really_ stupid thoughts when I'm around you, so let's just cut the cheesy-cake and move on here." She let her shoulders drop, eyes half lidded as she stared at her feet. "I can't be around you until I get over this little, school girl crush," she sighed again, her bangs falling into her gaze. "I'm a child, I know that. Maybe someday I'll grow up, but until _then_, well, I'm going to have to let you wander in your adult world… 'Cause, I can't be who that girl was, and I'm not saying you want me to be, but I know, even if, in some crazy-awesome-but-weird reality, you did like me, you would always compare me to her." Yuffie stared defeated at her feet. Almost dying had changed Yuffie's prospective on who she was. She didn't care if a large part of her emotions might have been influenced by that woman's pull on her, because she knew deep down, those feelings had to be there in the first place for them to be pulled out.

Cloud stayed silent, waiting for Yuffie to finish before he tried to speak. However, Yuffie looked up and Cloud with that grin again, that forced one. "Hey, Cloud, do you smoke?" the question hung in the air before Yuffie reached into her sleeve, smiling bitterly. "'Cause you do, now." With that she threw the smoke bomb against the ground, causing an explosion of smoke to rise up through the air.

Looking back on this moment, Yuffie wouldn't be able to not feel a sense of bitter sadness.

Cloud coughed heavily, his eyes stinging. When the smoke had cleared, he knew what he was going to see before he saw it. Yuffie was gone, leaving him in the training room alone and suddenly cold. He stared bitterly in front of him, trying to ignore the pain that rippled through him. Even if she had stayed, Cloud would never had been able to confess what he felt inside to her. She was too innocent, too naïve. She was too many things that Cloud wasn't and he didn't want to screw her up.

Yet…

He knew deep down that these were just excuses, excuses that he had been using before this moment. There was hope in him now, now that she had told him this. Squall had told him this would happen, yet he hadn't believed it. No matter how many girls flaunted over his good looks, he never would believe that someone could fall for him. Especially not someone he had fallen for.

But…

Was he just trying to put the feelings of his failure onto her? These were thoughts he didn't want to push aside needlessly. If she was just a stand in for his affection, for the girl he had loved before her, then it wasn't fair to Yuffie for him to use her. But… Part of him told him otherwise… That part which had evolved over the past couple of months…

Cloud put his head in his hands and growled.

* * *

Phew. The next chapter's all the way, actually. There's going to be a lot less of one thing and a lot more of something else, soooo…. I'll let you figure it out. This chapter was really heavy with my speciality, humor and serious mixed together.

But this chapter was the title chapter! The chapter were the story gets it's name from. Aren't I clever? Hee! Hee!

Anyway, I hope some of you feel satisfied with the answers you've gotten so far… And if you don't know who the mysterious heartless is by _now_ well, I'm not sure if I can help you. It's not like I was trying to hide it or anything.

Just a question... Does anyone finish any Clouffies on this site? I haven't really seen a finished story, that wasn't a one shot, in awhile on this site. Point me in the correct direction, please!

Previews!

_"Cid! Cid? Are you okay?!"  
_

"_Oh, not this bullshit again!"_

"_It definitely explains the increased strength in heartless power, Cloud."_

"_Hmhm, you look familiar."_


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